De collega's

- Season 2

(1979)

After Summer the colleagues move into their department's new office building, but find the builders still have much to finish: the small lift won't take all of them and their floor has no furniture, yet the director-general insists the file work must start. However, Baconfoy and Arabelle inform director Thienpondt that they have discovered the fifth floor has finished facilities and isn't occupied (the DG wanted the top floor instead). The problem is Thienpondt's rival colleague, director Ghijsels, discovered the fifth floor earlier and already filed an official ...

Philanthropist Philemon has a new project: rascal Alain, whom he took in for a summer 'holiday' from a Parisian destitute family. He calls it his haughty wife Angèle's idea, but she quickly dumps the kid back on him, so he brings the boy to the office, where his lack of education tests the colleagues' altruism. Meanwhile coffee lady Arabelle is getting a francophone apprentice, and looking for one of the bureaucrats to tutor her in Dutch, which only married men Jean De Pesser and Hilaire Baconfoy volunteer for.

Director Tienpondt is worried sick, duly fearing his student son Theo failed his exams again. Indeed, he asks Bacon and the others to prepare his father, who might even suffer a cardiac crisis. Betty is pleasantly surprised to be sent searching the lost son, her ex-lover, in his favorite bars. Jomme bothers Jean and Gilbert with his absurd considerations about past questions to prepare for a promotion exam, which Bacon is also taking. Bonaventuur refuses even to consider giving a hint as the others got wind he's in the exam jury, but the mere rumors started by big ...

After Arabelle tells director Ghyselick about the official business notes, the rumor going round is that the feared general inspection is about to scrutinize Thienpondt's department. The staff work their tails off, for a change, fixing what has been neglected for far too long. Director Thienpondt and his deputy Persez, try to work out who should get the blame if the inspection goes badly. Persez is facing divorce after catching his Angèle in his bed with another as he returned a day early from Paris. However, visiting Director General Jan Clercx, to report himself '...

After the bank on the ground floor of the ministry's building is robbed, the two culprits flee to the fourth floor, where they take the colleagues hostage, including Mireille who nearly sneaked out and Persez, who is found passed-out in his office. Crook Rudy is as uncultivated as he is aggressive, threatening them with excessive violence, his fellow Guido an unemployed intellectual and inclined to consider reasonable alternatives. After the media reported the affair, friends and family gather, including Verastenhove, on -real- sick leave, and student Theo Thienpondt,...

Widower Jomme believes to have found a second mother for son Adelbert in typist Marianne, so he's eager to have her apply for the free typist post now Betty takes a leave to nurse her sick mother. Persez is a wreck, pending his divorce. Van Hie is on leave from an injured knee, just now it's double files season. The brass first decides on well-reputed Caroline Van Kersbeke, but Jean's flirtation chases her away. Jomme gets his Marianne, but she arrives drunk and the mates prove she only intends to milk him for money, as predicted by Mireille, who has joined a cult. ...

Director Thienpondt is furious after complaints from the Director-general about 15 case files which didn't get transferred to the Home Office in time. So the chain of command passes the anger till Verastenhoven promises to remedy his backlog, and an excuse is arranged: junior clerk Van Hie's knee injury supposedly made the files impossible to find. Meanwhile the colleagues find out what occupied Verastenhoven more the files: he's preparing a PBS program about how to speak at an office window. To Thienpondt's surprise, the director-general is most sympathetic, having ...

Since Mireille is following the teachings of her prophet, she became spooky, some even fear her blessings. She's strangely drawn to the old archives room, where she finds among old pictures one with her grandpa Gerard Puis, who worked in the ministry and more. Meanwhile the colleagues get into a row over the lotto because Kris participated instead of Jean who was on dentistry leave. Director Thienpondt tries to put a stop to the while nonsense and to his recently graduated son Theo's application as conscientious objector to compulsory military service.

With Jomme on sick leave and Jean to the dentist (for a day), Thienpondt's department is badly understaffed. Yet the director-general not only insists the files must be worked on, he takes a winter holiday and charges Thienpondt, his eldest director, to act as his deputy. However Thienpondt is allowed to use two temporary officials, again at a price: he must instruct all five temps, which proves all but pleasant. Meanwhile the coffee lady also has a temp, Jacky Severijns, and claims to be his superior although no such rank insists.

Tienpont makes fun of Persez dressed 'like a sexton', but both realize at April Fools day the real danger comes from prankster king duo Van Hie and De Pesser, who tries his hand at mischief by voodoo doll. The others team up to protect each-other from being fooled and duly expect the occasion must be sought during the mandatory first aid course freshened up by Bacon and proper fire drill presided over by an expert outsider. Coffee lady Arabelle was recruited as spy, but will she end up double or triple agent? The director general walks in just after the prankster trap...

While Thienpondt in on holiday in Spain, Verastenhoven has been appointed acting director because Persez is deemed unsuitable in his present mental state and run-down attire. His mother pays him a visit at work eager to stir up his ambition, but also to decide whether they should invest in Baconfoy's project to buy a groceries store for his wife and daughters to run. Alas the other colleagues mount a campaign to have Persez promoted instead.

In the fight for Thienpondt's succession, Persez's supporters deliberately hide the keys to Jomme's filing cabinet, so Verastenhoven must tell the director-general two files requested by the Minister are impossible to find. This gets even more embarrassing when he doesn't notice who stands behind him. Jomme was late because of the preparations for his son Adelbert's confirmation, who gets even more stressed when first his dad arrives (fat and talkative) then his hot-head brother Nest. Only Baconfoy, who still hopes for a business loan, helps Verastenhoven, who is too ...

Persez plans to celebrate his return and interim directorship. Independently Thienpondt also plans a celebration of his move on to another department, and Baconfoy plans to celebrate the opening of his shop. Each brings champagne, ignorant of the other's plans, which Annabelle wickedly keeps that way until it's too late to cancel. They fight about who will buy how many bottles from whom. The office also gets a visit from the ministry's physician, who gives a lecture on healthy bodily activity, taking account of age. In view of the approaching holiday, Persez plans a ...