Kein Pardon

Hans Peter Wilhelm “Hape” Kerkeling; born 9 December 1964, in Recklinghausen, Germany) is a well-known German actor, presenter and comedian.

Kerkeling started his career as a comedian in radio, working for various German broadcasting companies, such as WDR and BR. The real breakthrough came in 1984/85 when, still aged only 19, Kerkeling got a role in the Känguru television comedy show. The best-known character in this show was the little boy Hannilein, played by Kerkeling, an irritating child with red hair in a pudding-basin style, dungarees and sitting on giant-sized chairs, who commented on the world of adults.

Then in 1989 Kerkeling started up his own comedy TV show, Total Normal (Totally Normal) along with pianist Achim Hagemann. This show, a satirical spoof on prime-time TV-Shows, had a totally new format and was awarded several television prizes such as the Goldene Kamera, the Adolf-Grimme-Preis and the Bayerischer Fernsehpreis.

On the show, Kerkeling made television history on 25 April 1991 when he dressed up as Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on a state visit to Berlin and almost managed to get into Schloss Bellevue to meet the President of Germany for dinner. The satirical song from this show, Das ganze Leben ist ein Quiz (All life is a quiz) made it into the German pop charts.

In 1992, Kerkeling’s first film came out: Kein Pardon, which he directed and starred in, as well as helping to write the script.