| Sewende Laan | |
|---|---|
Sewende Laan logo |
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| Created by | Danie Odendaal |
| Country of origin | South Africa |
| No. of episodes | 2595 (as of October 21st, 2011) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 min (including commercial breaks) |
| Distributor | SABC2 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
7de Laan is a South African soap opera in Afrikaans with some English and Zulu in between. It features English subtitles. It started in 2000 and is broadcast evenings on SABC 2 from Monday to Friday.
It is set in and around the fictional Sewende Laan ("Seventh Avenue") and the suburb of Hillside in 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, but was then later broadcast on Fridays as well, as a daily soap. It airs on SABC 2 from Monday to Friday nights from 18:27-19:00. Ratings are generally around the 2 million mark according to tvsa.co.za.
Contents |
7de Laan is set in Hillside which is one of the suburbs 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 building that contains 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.
Charmaine Meintjies owns and runs Oppikoffie alongside with her waiters: Pieter, Kim and Bernard. Oppikoffie is a coffee shop located on the bottom floor of the Heights and directly opposite Eclectic E.
Eclectic E is the local boutique located opposite Oppikoffie. It is owned and run by Felicity Daniels (who is a famed and successful fashion designer with her own designer clothing line called "Felicity Fashions") along with Annelie. It is a popular meeting place for many of the female characters.
The Deli (as it is more commonly known) is owned and run by Vince Meintjies (one of Neville Meintjies' sons), with Hilda de Kock as the assistant chef. Lukas used to work there.
The bookshop (as it is colloquially known) 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 that episode to give out autographs and to answer questions
Hillside Travel is a travel agency owned and run by Gita McGregor with Zinzi Kheswa as the assistant agent.
Hillside Times is the local newspaper owned by Neville Meintjies (who is also the editor) and (Tim Jordaan who has left). The Times has Sanjay Ramdin as their head journalist and food critic, Paula van der Lecq is the fashion, social, literature. and now recently Finance Journalist and Aggie Ngwena as their PA and part time journalist. Errol Pieterse (adopted son of Charmaine and Neville Meintjies) is the delivery boy. After being taught the basics of the biz by former journalist "Mandla Khumalo", Errol has recently done a couple of freelance articles for the newspaper.
The staff of the newspaper have also recently begun a new sister publication "The Balmoral Gazette" in a neighboring suburb.
Bruynwaves is an events organising company which is owned by Altus de Bruyn (hence "Bruyn"-waves). Vanessa Meintjies and Diederik is Altus's co-organiser.
T&T is the local sporting equipment shop. The Hillside Gym is located on the second floor of the building and is run by San-Mari (she also gives personal training classes there). The shop is owned by Herman Croukamp. San-Mari works in T&T as a shop assistant. Willem has now started working at T & T as a shop assistant.
O'Malley's is the pub where the young crowd likes to hang out. Lukas worked there at night(but left on 31 October 2011) He used to take turns with Bernard.
The Hillside Club is managed by Alyce Morapedi (who is currently on leave and doesn't feature in the show at the moment) and is where the whole cast get together to party, have fun and once in a while see a popular South African band.
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.