Special thanks to Marco Serafini, Stephan Bechtle, Nathalie Attard and Amandine Attard.
Jolly Joker, the excellent 1991-1992 German adventure-comedy series, is available since last month on DVD thanks to Fernsehjuwelen.
Christian Borg is a jet-setting playboy who enjoys the pleasures of life to the point of regularly going broke. He often risks his Jaguar E-Type in silly bets to pay his latest extravagance until his old uncle, the wealthy Artur Brecht, appears to cancel his debt. Although Brecht is one of the ten richest men in the world, he's also stingy and he always asks his nephew to pay him back with various assignments all over the globe. The billionaire runs his empire from a high-tech office in his countryside house, whose gatekeeper is a moody electronic lion named Hugo.
Artur's assistant Anette, an expert in science and weaponry, provides Borg with the intel he needs and all sorts of gadgets that explode, smoke or emit a laser beam. Brecht cannot use his computers without Anette and he has no grip on Erich, a food and drink dispenser robot in charge of his diet. The missions may not seem impossible for a young man as resourceful as Christian Borg. He must check on the condition of a Greek minister wounded by a model helicopter, find a stolen truck full of food for Africa, buy a collection of rare wines in Tuscany, investigate the disappearance of a samba dancer, visit a French scientist who can make gold, etc. The places (and the girls) are beautiful, except that with Artur Brecht there's always a catch.
Produced by the venerable German production company Bavaria Film for the early evening schedule of the ARD network, the 22 x 52-minute episodes of Jolly Joker (one pilot + 21 episodes) ran from January 1991 to September 1992. The series was developed by scriptwriter Thomas Kubisch and Bavaria Film producer Stephan Bechtle as a parody of James Bond, hence the « Mein Name ist Borg, Christian Borg » catchphrase, the gadgets and Anette as the equivalent of 007's Q. Austrian actor Stefan Fleming (Familie Merian) plays Borg. Paul Hubschmid (Funeral in Berlin, Fritz Lang's diptych The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb) is Artur Brecht. Anette is played by Maja Maranow, noticed by German viewers in Rivalen der Rennbahn (1989) (1).
Luxembourg-born director and screenwriter Marco Serafini (Schwarz Rot Gold) was chosen by Stephan Bechtle to helm all the episodes of Jolly Joker. Both were students at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF) in Munich. The series was penned by Stephan Kubisch, Stephan Cipriano, Klaus Fröba, Claus-Michael Rohne, Alexander Stever, Fabienne Paklepa and Stephan Kirste. Marco Serafini and the
production team prepared Christian Borg's eventful travels by looking for foreign locations and did
the casting on-site. Then, they gave their specifications to the
scriptwriters who wrote on this basis. Jolly Joker was filmed in Greece (Rhodes), Tuscany (Trequanda), Naples, Chili (Santiago, the Humberstone ghost town, Antofagasta, the Vergara Pier...), Brazil, Morocco (Tangier, Fez), France (Camargue, Corsica), Luxembourg, Portugal and Austria.
An international cast worked on the series: Mimi Denissi (2), Giorgos Kotanidis, Leonard Lansink (best known today for Wilsberg), Corinna Drews, Walter Buschhoff, Ludger Pistor (who gained fame with Balko), Lino Salemme (Demons), Miroslav Nemec, Anouschka Renzi, Isaac Bardavid (Escrava Isaura), Alexa Wiegandt, John Knuckey (La Quintrala), Desirée Nosbuch, Natacha Amal, Irene Hubschmid-Schiesser, Nicolas Vogel, Florence Geanty (Marc et Sophie), Ana Padrão, Georges Claisse, Nadia Fares, Will Danin, Michel Voletti and many others. Borg's crazy gambles and the scenes in Brecht's house were shot in and around Munich and in the Bavaria Film Studios. An episode (Münzpoker) was shot entirely in Germany and Marco Serafini even used the set from the film Das Boot in the Bavaria Studios.
The episode Schwere Erbschaft, made in Luxembourg with tax credit money, was an idea of the director who co-produced it via his own company LFP. A chase in the Jean-Monnet Building at Luxembourg-Kirchberg was filmed for the occasion. Despite shooting abroad and some special effects, production costs looked reasonable for series commissionner Westdeutsches Werbefernsehen (WWF) Köln. They considered them close to those of the crime drama Der Fahnder (1981-2005) (3). The pilot of Jolly Joker (Tod am hoher See) was filmed in 1988, essentially in Rhodes. The shooting actually began in Bavaria with Peter Pasetti as Brecht but the actor had to be replaced by Paul Hubschmid due to health issues. Five more episodes were produced that year.
There was a press screening in October 1988, six episodes were filmed in 1989 and ten in 1990. The making of Jolly Joker was long and the network wanted a substantial number of episodes to show the series. The pilot was finally presented in primetime on January 6, 1991. Then, twelve episodes aired from January 8 to March 26, 1991. When Jolly Joker returned on March 10, 1992, "nine new episodes" were announced but ARD axed it because of the ratings (4) after the episode shown on April 7, 1992 (Der Schatz von Lissabon). The series arrived in France on M6 as Le Joker (July 19, 1992) and ended its run in Germany from August to September 1992. The soundtrack of Jolly Joker was composed by Harald Kloser and Thomas Schobel. English singer Chris Thompson performed the title song Playground of the Joker, written by Harald Kloser, Benny Bilgeri and Chris Thompson (5).
Stefan Fleming pursued a versatile career as an actor, presenter, author, scriptwriter and voice artist. From 1994 to 1997, he wrote and hosted the children programme Raus mit Stefan for Austrian television ORF. Fleming co-starred in Der Winzerkönig (2006-2010) and worked extensively on stage. Maja Maranow guest starred in numerous TV series, played in Der König von St. Pauli (1998) and had a regular role in the long-running crime drama Ein Starkes Team, aired by ZDF since 1994. Sadly, the actress died on January 4, 2016, aged 54. Marco Serafini established himself as one of the most important television directors in Europe. His filmography includes episodes of In Namen des Gesetses (1994-2008), Zwei Brüder (1997-1999), Polizeiruf 110 (6) or Il Commissario Rex (2008-2015). He helmed several TV movies based on the novels by Rosamunde Pilcher and the books of Inga Lindström (Inga Lindström is produced by Stephan Bechtle for Bavaria Fiction).
The globe-trotting adventures of Christian Borg are vividly remembered by viewers who watched Jolly Joker at the time. As well as Borg' Scrooge MacDuck/Donald Duck relationship with Brecht, the inventions of the genius Anette, the extraordinary locations, the stunts, the humour (Hugo and Erich demand the 35-hour week!) and Playground of the Joker. Lead by a brilliant cast and competently done, Jolly Joker is an ambitious production which doesn't take itself seriously. The 6-disc DVD boxset by Fernsehjuwelen contains the 22 episodes (in German). Bonus material is comprised of a digital booklet written by Oliver Bayan, a trailer of Jolly Joker, a reversible cover and the trailers of a few gems from Film- und Fernsehjuwelen (Jerry Cotton, Kommissar X, Fu Manchu, the BBC/ZDF series Paul Temple, Poppy Is Also a Flower and Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die).
(1) Created by Ted Willis, Eric Paice and Anita Mally.
(2) Eminent Greek theatre actress and personality.
(3) https://taz.de/Gluecksritter-Borg-in-Aktion/!1738731/
(4) https://taz.de/!1673343/
(5) The soundtrack of Jolly Joker, containing Playground of the Joker and other songs, was released in 1991. The same year, a tie-in novel by Klaus Killian was published.
(6) Polizeiruf 110 began in 1971 as the answer of East Germany to Tatort, the crime drama collection of ARD launched in 1970. Both are still aired today.
https://www.fernsehjuwelen.de/Jolly-Joker-Gesamtedition-Alle-22-Folgen-6-DVDs/6424104
http://marcoserafini.com/
https://www.bavaria-fiction.de/person/stephan-bechtle
https://www.fleming.at/ (Stefan Fleming)
See also:
https://www.funke-stertz.de/wp-content/uploads/Thomas-Kubisch-%E2%80%93-Funke-Stertz.pdf (Thomas Kubisch)
