I recall being terribly upset by one of the more realistic episodes of Floris when I first saw the series as a little boy. Since then the series has been programmed a couple of times during the last 40 years on Dutch television. My own kids loved it even with the relative slow pace and the B/W presentation. A shame really as I own 3 publications that contain Color pictures from the series. The closest in comparison may be Ivanhoe (1959) featuring Roger Moore which is obviously filmed with at least 10 times more budget, though also in B/W. Perhaps I am being a little chauvinistic here, but 'Floris' comes across as a grittier, more realistic medieval depiction. It also has great chemistry between it's leads and a hauntingly good opening theme. Unfortunately for posterity the production went way over the proposed budget and the NTR (responsible for the TV programming) decided that this type of programs was not it's primary goal. Rutger Hauer made it pretty big in Hollywood (at least for Dutch standards) whereas Sindala (Jos Bergman) was never heard of again. Some years ago the Floris concept was ineffectively transferred to the big screen in a Dutch film version focusing on 'the grandson of..' Actually never met anyone who has seen this or willing to admit to it..
