End of story for Shelter. The production house of television makers Tim Van Aelst (44) and Sofie Peeters (34), which has achieved international successes such as Benidorm bastards in What if? to his name, will cease to exist after thirteen years. “We’ve felt for a while that we don’t want to walk this path any longer.”
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‘It has been a long and sensitive process’, says Tim Van Aelst. On Friday, he and Sofie Peeters, his partner in business and family life, informed employees, colleagues and actors of the end of their production house Shelter. After thirteen years, one of, if not the most successful television machine in Flanders is throwing in the towel.
‘Over the past year we have asked ourselves the question: ‘Do we want to run another company?” The fire from the early years has gradually been extinguished. We took over the business side because we wanted to create our own space to do beautiful things. But we are not entrepreneurs pur sang† We are and will continue to be television makers in the first place. And we have realized that we want to take different paths.’
Drie Emmy Awards
Shelter’s legacy, with seven programs and one film, is short but sweet. The production house was founded in 2009 by Van Aelst, comedian Bart Cannaerts and TV maker Tom Baetens. Shelter issued looking Flanders ‘de Smos’, the hyperpopular type of Matteo Simoni Safety first, and launched the television career of comedian Jens Dendoncker. Van Aelst and co. even take home an Emmy Award, for Benidorm bastards (2011), how shall i say (2018) and the sketch program What if? (2014). And then we haven’t even mentioned the Golden Roses, the most prestigious European prize for TV entertainment.
– Tim Van Aelst co-wrote and directed almost all of Shelter’s productions. “We took everything out of it.”
‘It’s a lot of prizes for seven programs’, their creator says, still a bit incredulous. Despite its success, Shelter remained a small-scale production house, with a small group of employees. ‘I am extremely grateful for everything we have been able to do, and the enthusiasm with which it was received. That’s exactly why we want to stop at a peak, before we start making bad programs. We did everything we could.’
The second season of Billie vs. Benjamin, the tragicomic fiction series about the love between a girl on the left and a boy on the right, will be the last feat of arms. What will Van Aelst do next? “I really have no idea,” he replies. ‘I want to go to zero, to start all over again. I’m sure I still have ideas and stories in me, but they’re not on the agenda yet. I want to go through this grieving process first, however fraught that may sound.’
From ‘Benidorm bastards’ to ‘Billie vs. Benjamin’
Whether hidden camera, sitcom or drama, Shelter’s programming has always been a hit. All their programs could be seen on VTM (and in the past also on the defunct 2BE). It started in 2009 with Benidorm bastards, with the plucky oldies on the scooters. Then came the absurd skits of What if? and the antics of the security guards off Safety firstwho made the switch to the silver screen in 2015.
How shall I say it? returned to the hidden camera in 2017, in 2019 Van Aelst ventured with Studio Tarara to drama for the first time. Last year Jens Dendoncker explored love in all its forms in That’s lovethis year the production house released the new fiction series Billie vs. Benjamin.
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The clique from ‘Benidorm bastards’.
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‘What if?’.
Photo: What If?
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Matteo Simoni, Ben Segers, Ruth Beeckmans and Bruno Van den Broecke in ‘Safety first’.
Foto: Safety First
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Presenter Jens Dendoncker and sidekick Jeroen Verdick (central) in ‘How shall I say it?’.
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Olga Leyers, Koen De Graeve and Laura Tesoro in ‘Studio Tarara’.
Photo: Studio Tarara
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Jens Dendoncker and Lize Feryn in ‘That’s love’.
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Charlotte Timmers and Ward Kerremans’ Billie vs. Benjamin.’
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