The BEST VRT 1 shows of all time

#1 - Flikken

Popular fiction series about police officers in a precinct of Ghent (Flanders, Belgium), both professionally and in their private lives.

#2 - Het Eiland

Michel, Guido and Frankie have been co-workers and close friends for years. But when their boss gets fired, Guido gets a promotion and is replaced by the odd Alain Van Damme. No normal day passes on this work floor where impossible situations, hilarious moments and odd people are just a daily thing

#3 - Basta

The little man is the favorite target of all sorts of large and small rogues and villains, of unscrupulous companies and unreliable persons. He is robbed, manipulated, cheated and lied to. Four men think it's been enough, and step into action. Neveneffecten kicks in doors. Sometimes open doors, sometimes armored doors. Sometimes a colossal door and occasionally a loophole. Once they arrive, they do a dance on the table, let a fart in the fridge, give all the plants water and go back out through the window. Six weeks Neveneffecten operates self-made investigative journalism with a sense of humor. Sometimes with many theatrical gestures, other times almost imperceptibly. In the eyes of the four boys glistens a mixture of militancy, sweet revenge and a little twinkle.

#4 - F.C. De Kampioenen

A bunch of friends in a soccer team have silly adventures where everything always end with a misunderstanding.

#5 - De Parelvissers

6 friends started a television production company, "De Parelvissers" (The Pearlfishers). 7 years later one of them, Jan De Ridder, took 100 million francs out of the bank and disappeared without a trace. Shortly after that the company went bankrupt. Another five years later the younger brother of Jan, Piet De Ridder, invites the other 'Pearlfishers" to a remote house in the Ardens, to make a documentary film about the company and hoping that together they may find some answers about what might have happened to Jan.

#6 - Sense of Tumour

The life of Tristan Devriendt, a 25-year-old medicine student, is completely messed up when he suddenly gets cancer and becomes a patient himself. Ambitious dreams are abruptly interrupted and make way for a life and death struggle. Tristan, his family and friends end up in a confusing mix of emotions with humor and love as an unexpected side effect.

#7 - Wauters vs. Waes

In a new program and VTM Koen Wauters and Tom Waes ten weeks will challenge each other to the limit to go. On Sunday, April 21 viewers of both channels were a foretaste, in a short broadcast that decided on the title of the new program. Koen Wauters thereby drew the longest straw and made it so that the "program vs. Wauters. Waes' will be called.

#8 - Van Vlees en Bloed

A tragicomedy about the everyday life of a butchers family Vangenechten. The business is running fine until the son returns home after a long time. He wants to learn more about the butchers trade and want to take over the butchers shop so it stays in the family. Of course the mother and grandmother are very pleased with this, but the father has its own thoughts. The return of the son unleashes a chain of events and every member of the family gets a share. Meanwhile the neighbor is watching it all closely...

#9 - Waes' Travels

Why do we always visit the same destinations on vacation? In Waes' Travels, Tom Waes visits countries that the average tourist would not visit with one question to be answered: can I go on holiday here? No quiet villages in Spain or France but destinations with armed guerrillas, volcanoes and cyclones or insane dictators. Tom Waes is thrown from one experience to the next: ranging from sad hotels to the most beautiful places on Earth, stripclubs and even Stalins bed.

#10 - Quiz me Quick

"Quiz Me Quick" tells the story of five underdogs, meeting by chance during a quiz in a local pub. They get the idea of taking part in the "Superprestige", the most important quiz. The selection procedure turns out to be difficult, requiring more than just knowledge. There's even more at stake than the five had in mind. "Quiz Me Quick" follows their successes as well as their failures.

#11 - Tomtesterom

In Tomtesterom Tom Waes puts "How to books " to the test. Do they really work in real life situations ? Can anyone become a paparazzo, spy, world record holder or boxer? Tomtesterom tests it out with the aide of his crew and displays the result - success or failure - honestly and openly.

#12 - Witse

#13 - Professor T.

Police psychologist and university lecturer Professor Jasper Teerlink is arrogant, insolent, hyperactive and slightly unhinged. He's also a formidable crime-fighting genius.

#14 - Buiten de Zone

'Buiten de Zone' is set at a telephone exchange, run by five volunteers, who try to answer the telephone calls from people of their own age. They don't get many calls however, which lets them get carried away by their daydreams about all sorts of important things, like adventure, danger, fear, seduction and love, nostalgia, goodbyes and, of course, eternal life. 'The Famous Five' of the 'Jongerenfoon' are the romantic, dreamy Raf, impulsive Robin, the realistic and even a bit cynical Ubi, the spontaneous but inconsistent Roxanne and the idealistic and naive Merel.

#15 - Kulderzipken

A fairy tale about the simple farmerboy Kulderzipken who by accident managed to succeed in the first task to win the hand of princess Prieeltje, the daughter of king Jozef. King Jozef doesn't want Kulderzipken to become the new king, and with the help of the mother of the devil and her son (who is too nice to be a devil) he's constantly trying to throw Kulderzipken out.

#16 - Kabouter Wesley

Kabouter Wesley is a series of comics and short animated cartoons about a grumpy and violent kabouter (gnome), made by Jonas Geirnaert. Both the drawing style and the content are purposely made naive and amateuristic and the situations are surreal and violent. There is also a lot of insulting and toilet humour in the series

#17 - Eigen Kweek

A local Belgian potato farmer loses all his money and tries to earn it back by growing cannabis.

#18 - Tabula Rasa

When a young woman with amnesia becomes a key figure in a missing persons case, she must reconstruct her memories to clear her name.

#19 - Beau Sejour

Beau Séjour is a Belgian anthology drama series in which a murdered person investigates his or her own death.

#20 - In Flanders Fields

The story of the Boesman family's attempt to survive in the city of Ghent during the first world war focusing on each of the five family member's different experiences

#21 - De Ridder

In the court of Ghent, one case's tragic outcome prompts ambitious young attorney Helena De Ridder to make a new start as a public prosecutor.

#22 - The Tour

Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010. In Bruges, more than 200 riders and their entourage are ready for the 94th Tour of Flanders. A sea of fans waits for them along the trail, while millions of others follow Flanders' finest on radio and TV. Note that the original airing consisted of 9 episodes, but was recut to 7 episodes for the dvd release.

#23 - Undercover (2019)

The Belgian Federal Police finds itself on the track of one of the world's largest XTC networks, which has been under the radar for years. The Dutchman Ferry Bouman is at the head. A man who, despite his fortune, prefers to spend his time in a simple chalet on the popular campsite next to his villa. Ferry is slippery and seems elusive, so the Belgian and Dutch police forces decide to join forces. They install their two best undercover agents, Belgian Bob Lemmens and Dutch Kim De Rooij, as a camping couple in a chalet close to Ferry and his wife Danielle Bouman. Their intention is clear: infiltrate Ferry's life, win his trust and plant Bob as a criminal that Ferry can do business with.

#24 - Het Geslacht De Pauw

A parody on a docusoap, the Pfaffs.

#25 - Salamander

Panic starts amongst the victims when safes are hacked in a small private family-bank. Only a small number of high society members are hit. Who ordered this hack? Who wants to disrupt the state? In complete panic the victims decide to conceal the robbery. The bank as well as the ministry of justice decide not to mention anything about it. But what they couldn't foresee was that police inspector Paul Gerardi by coincidence would find out about it. When he wants to investigate the case, he starts playing with his carreer, even his life.

#26 - Katarakt

#27 - Camp Waes

Reality show in which Tom Waes picks 15 normal men and women to follow the Qualification Camp of the real Belgian Special Forces. How many, if any, will be allowed to join Belgium's most elite army division?

#28 - Geub

#29 - Willy's en Marjetten

Willy's en Marjetten is a Flemish comedy TV series created by Neveneffecten and Bart De Pauw. The first season aired on Één in 2006. The program was produced by Woestijnvis. Each episode takes the form of a broadcast made by a fictional pirate television station, manned by a small number of VJs who introduce various sketches disguised as news or human interest reports. The style of both the program and its official website is deliberately amateurish. Most episodes involve a framing story which intertwines with certain sketches.

#30 - The Twelve

Twelve ordinary people are called for jury duty for a murder case as traumatizing as it is controversial: the respected headmistress Fri Palmers stands accused of two murders, one of whom is her own child. Gradually, as the trial gains momentum, it is not only Fri’s fate that hangs in the balance, but also the lives of the jury members that are shaken to the core.

#31 - Two Summers

A group of young twenty-somethings decide to party before the serious life begins. But the party turns into tragedy when one of them is tragically killed. Thirty years later, Romée and Peter decide to invite the same friends back to an island off the French Riviera.

#32 - Over Water

'Over Water' follows John Beckers who gains one last chance from his wife Marjan and their two children to get his life back on track. After a visit to rehab, John starts his new job at the freight company of his father-in-law. The port of Antwerp is a whole new world for the former TV star. It’s a harsh environment, but also one with its own rules and traditions. John fights his old demons as well as new temptations, but quickly enters a dangerous arena but also a very lucrative trade of the docks: cocaine. John Beckers came to work at the port, but finds increasingly extreme ways to make the port work for him.

#33 - Black-out

When a nuclear plant is sabotaged, the power grid in Belgium crashes. Prime Minister Annemie Hillebrand is forced to prolong the blackout, otherwise her daughter -who has been kidnapped- will die. Can Michael Dendoncker of the counter terrorism unit, rescue the girl in a country that's off the grid.

#34 - GR5

Eight-part psychological road thriller about four friends who take a walk along the Grand Routepad number 5, in commemoration of their girlfriend Lisa. She disappeared on that same path five years ago.

#35 - Arcadia

Following a major catastrophe, a new society, Arcadia, is born. Resources have become scarce and a point system, known as the Citizen Score, is introduced. It determines what you can and may do and what a citizen is entitled to.