While Czech Television is commemorating its seventy years of existence with the controversial series “Volha”, giving the impression that this institution was staffed only by people who filmed nothing but normalization propaganda, drank themselves into unconsciousness, had sex and abused each other, it simultaneously broadcasts a number of films, series and entertainment programs that were created at that time and the real creative and acting elite took part in them. Among them is the legendary series “Hospital on the outskirts of the city”.
His extraordinary qualities are also evidenced by his great success abroad. Producers from Hamburg television even contributed to the fact that after the first, thirteen-part series from 1979, a second, seven-part series was filmed two years later. Thanks to this, the main characters experienced unexpected and unprecedented popularity not only in our country, but also abroad. For example, Eliška Balzerová, who won the prestigious TV award “Bambi” for her role as Dr. Čeňková, recalls that when she was on holiday abroad, people recognized her and literally went crazy. Josef Abrhám, on the other hand, was surprised by the German fans of “Hospital” in Paris.
Unforgettable Ina
And even after decades, many actors are primarily associated with this series. This also applies to the beautiful and shy sister Ina Galušková, played by Andrea Čunderlíková. Although she created dozens of other roles, all were overshadowed by this one, truly fateful. She has already made it known many times that she didn’t like the character of an infantile and closed girl at all at first and initially she didn’t want to play her at all, because she herself is the exact opposite of her. It was only years later, thanks to several interviews, that she managed to convince the audience that she really had nothing in common with Ina except for beauty. She was similarly reluctant to play her in “The Hospital After Twenty Years”, mainly because she hadn’t appeared on camera in twenty years. The role of Dr. Blažej’s wife in “Hospital after twenty years” thus became her last ever.
Colorless little sister?
In 2011, Andrea Čunderlíková appeared as an almost sixty-year-old elegant lady in the “Jan Krause Show”. He also recalled that she is well known as Ina from “Hospital” and added: “She was such a colorless nurse,” against which, however, Andrea objected: “That’s not true, she got everything she wanted.” And when Kraus (a classmate of Andrea’s from elementary school, by the way) objected that she was absent-minded, she blasted him: “Well, maybe that’s why.” She boasted that the role made men like her while women hated her.
She revealed to viewers what she actually did after she ended her acting career. Because she didn’t want to wait for roles after 1989, she started working as a manager in the tennis industry, after all her daughter Sandra Kleinová was a very successful tennis player. During the interview, she vividly demonstrated that she is very far from the sleepy and infantile Ina, that she is, on the contrary, lively, talkative and that she does not lack a great sense of humor.
Better death than retirement
Last year, in an interview with Czech Radio, she told how important filming “Hospital on the Edge of the City” was for her and how fantastic the atmosphere was: “Back then, filming was still done in a different way, much more was devoted to it. I enjoyed being in that studio and watching the bards. It was very enlightening for me and I look back on it fondly.” Although he has long been entitled to a pension, he still works (this time in the field of public relations) and does not think about resting at all: “You must kill me before I retire.” She also mentioned that she is very happy and the two granddaughters who were born to Sandra give her the greatest joy.
Sources: Czech Television, Czech Radio, TV Prima
