7de Laan

7de Laan

Sewende Laan logo
Created by Danie Odendaal
Country of origin South Africa
No. of episodes 3762 (as of 23 March 2016)
Production
Running time 30 min (including commercial breaks)
Distributor SABC2
External links
Website

7de Laan is a South African Afrikaans soap opera with some English and Zulu dialogue in between. It features English subtitles. It started in 2000 and is broadcast evenings on SABC 2 from Monday to Friday at 18:27–18:59.

It is set in and around the fictional Sewende Laan ("Seventh Avenue") in the suburb of Hillside, Johannesburg where all the characters live or work. The street and shopfronts which are featured on the opening visuals, are that of Seventh Street in Melville, Johannesburg.

Sewende Laan was originally broadcast from Monday to Thursday, then later extended to include Fridays as well. Ratings are generally around the 2 million mark, according to tvsa.co.za.

The series' signature opening violin-tune, played by the Soweto String Quartet, has become one of South Africa's most iconic tunes. The theme-tune is so well-loved that many viewers complained when the instantly recognisable tune was replaced, for the first time in 15 years, by a newer more modern theme in 2015.

A milestone was reached on 9 May 2013 when episode number 3 000 was broadcast.

List of Characters

Current characters

Guest actors

Past characters (actors withdrawn from cast)

Past guest actors

Shops, businesses and residences

7de Laan is set in Hillside which is a fictional suburb in Johannesburg. Within the suburb, there are many businesses and shops where the characters work, live and hang around in. These are the current locations that are used:

The Hillside Heights is the centre of Hillside. It is an old residential building that has small apartments where most of the characters live. The Hillside Heights building is owned by Gita McGregor and Oubaas van Zyl is the keeper of the building.Mr Masangu was thought to own the building, but was not allowed by Herman as he blackmailed himMany a spookstorie made its appearance in the building's alleys, and so often somebody gets locked-up in the store room by accident.

Charmaine Meintjies owns and runs Oppikoffie along with her waiters. Oppikoffie is a coffee shop located on the ground floor of the Heights and directly opposite Eclectic E. Charmaine and the waiters are not coping under the busy workload at present and they soon will have to hire another waiter. Many of the young characters worked there as waiters in the past: Annelie, Bernard, Clara, Connie, Danelle, Diederik, Kabelo, Kim, Lucas, Monique, Pieter, Tessa and Zinzi.

Eclectic E is the local boutique located opposite Oppikoffie. It is owned and ran by Felicity Daniels (who is a famed and successful fashion designer with her own designer clothing label called "Felicity Fashions") and her husband, Herman, who is also the owner of T&T, as general manager. Pulane currently works there as an assistant. Past assistants were Irma,Paula, Annelie, Clara, Monique and Tessa. It is a popular meeting place for many of the female characters.

The Deli is owned and managed by Vince Meintjies (one of Neville Meintjies' sons), with Hilda de Kock as the assistant chef. Jerome, Bart, Vanessa, Matrone, Lukas and Pieter used to work here at different times.

The bookshop is owned by Ryno Lategan with the assistance of Matrone Netta Nortjè (who is also the matron of the Hillside Old Home). The bookshop has featured many real life book-releases on the show with the author guest-starring in the particular episode to sign autographs and to answer questions.

Hillside Travel is a travel agency owned and run by Gita McGregor. Zinzi Kheswa, Asha and Antoinette used to work there as PA's. Ty (Gita McGregor's nephew) is currently Gita's assistant.

The local community newspaper, The Hillside Times, is owned by Neville Meintjies and Nthabiseng (who bought her shares from Lilian Bala). Ryno Lategan served as editor-in-chief in Neville's absence when he was thought dead. Neville was shot and Anna is acting editor in the time being. Neville's journalists are Nthabiseng, Bernard Jordaan and Errol Pieterse, Aggie Ngwena as their PA and Paula van der Lecq as a part-time online journalist.

The staff of the newspaper had started a new sister publication, The Balmoral Gazette, in a neighbouring suburb, but Neville had to sell this paper off to recoup his losses after The Hillside Times reported a bogus tip-off that led to legal action being taken against it.

Bruynwaves is an events organising company that is owned by Altus de Bruyn (hence "Bruyn"-waves). Vanessa Meintjies, Diederik and Sifiso are Altus's co-organisers.

T&T is the local sporting equipment shop, owned by Herman Croukamp. The Hillside Gym is located on the first floor of the building and was run by Lindile (he also gave personal training classes there) and Kim. Previously, Tiaan, Kabelo, San Mari, Lukas and Willem worked in T&T as shop assistants.

O'Malley's is the pub where the young crowd like to hang out. Former bartenders included Lucas, Pieter and Bernard.

The new after-work recreation and relaxation venue in Hillside. Owned and run by Marko Greyling.

This is a real, old time mansion, previously owned by author Ryno Lategan, but now by the Croukamps. It turns out to be a popular venue for house parties, fashion shows, book launches as well as wedding receptions. A fictional character (never seen on screen) is Evelina, the residence's cook and famous for her dish Evelina se niertjies. She started working there when it was still Madel's house in early episodes.

Whenever there is a medical emergency, this scene comes into play. "Patients" are kept in bed for a short while, visited by the other characters, and then discharged home.

Other places (seldom seen on screen):

  1. Restaurant "Le Petit Paris"
  2. The Cherry On Top (Restaurant)
  3. Mostly Matise (Restaurant)
  4. Laura Lee Beauty Salon
  5. Felicity Fashions' factory
  6. Die slaghuis (butchery)
  7. Die apteek (pharmacy)
  8. Police station and magistrate's court
  9. The Church (mostly for weddings)

10th Anniversary

In April 2010, Sewende Laan celebrated ten years on television. During this month, viewers got to see pictures of the show through its ten years during the end credits of each episode.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 24, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.