Retour Den Haag (1999)

Three-part drama series inspired by the eponymous diary of politician Ed van Thijn (played by Huub Stapel. In 1993, the then mayor of Amsterdam was involved in the dismantling of the IRT - the Interregional Investigation Team - by police commissioner and friend Eric Nordholt (Tom Jansen). Shortly thereafter, he is asked by his party to succeed the deceased Ien Dales (Anne-Wil Blankers) as Minister of Home Affairs. In this position Van Thijn is responsible for the IRT affair and therefore his own functioning as mayor. After a few months he is sent home by the Lower House, together with Minister of Justice Hirsch Balin (Thom Hoffman). In addition to a reconstruction of the IRT affair, Return The Hague is mainly a dramatized story about conflicts between friendship, ideals and self-interest in politics.