When Corné van Rooyen became a father during the Covid-19 pandemic, something nagged at him, something he couldn’t quite shake. Every time he changed his daughter Hannah’s nappy or paced the floor at night to help her sleep, the reactions from those around him gave him pause.
“When I changed her nappy, I almost got a standing ovation. I walked around with her to get her to sleep, and people would say: ‘Wow, you really are a good father.’ But when a woman does exactly the same thing, she’s not a hero. She’s just a mother,” recalls the director, writer and producer at Red Letter Day Pictures.
That discomfort became the seed of Beter as Gister, a new 13-episode drama series premiering on kykNET (DStv Channel 144) on 30 June 2026 at 8pm. The show will also be available on DStv Stream and Catch Up.
The making of the show
Van Rooyen, who wrote and directed the series alongside his wife and creative partner René van Rooyen, is no stranger to kykNET audiences. They are the duo behind beloved local productions Alles Malan and Summertide. Tascha van der Westhuizen joins as producer, continuing her long-standing collaboration with the Van Rooyens through their production banner, Red Letter Day Pictures.
The experience of early fatherhood crystallised an uncomfortable social truth that he felt needed to be explored honestly on screen.
“It made me realise how low the standard is for men to be seen as good fathers and how incredibly high the standard is for women to be recognised as good mothers. In the public’s eyes, it is easy to be a good father: Just do the basic things and everyone applauds. But to me, that felt wrong. Because being a good father requires much more than that,” he said.
Four families, four fathers
Beter as Gister follows four very different families and the men at the centre of each of them, with storylines that intersect themes of identity, loss, ambition and redemption.
Marco Fouché (Neels van Jaarsveld) is a devoted stay-at-home dad who has anchored his family for a decade while his wife Cecile (Rolanda Marais) built a career that eventually took her to the mayoral office in Cape Town. When Marco decides to re-enter the working world, the carefully maintained balance of the Fouché household begins to fracture.
Bernard Kruger (Frank Rautenbach) is cast in an altogether different mould: a ruthless, success-obsessed businessman whose relationship with his teenage son Reynard (Sebastian van Niekerk) has long been strained. When a traumatic incident upends the Kruger family, Bernard is forced to interrogate what it means to be both a man and a father.
Eben Strauss (Edwin van der Walt) is a single dad and writer raising his young daughter Lilly (Luna Coetzer), who is on the autism spectrum. Their close-knit world is disrupted when Lilly’s mother Sally (Greteli de Swardt) resurfaces after years of absence, forcing Eben to navigate an entirely new and fraught dynamic.
Then there is Tariq Cupido (Elton Landrew), a 62-year-old retired police officer and widower who, years ago, drove his own daughter away. When he learns she has died and that he has a six-year-old granddaughter, Katinka (Alexis Newman), the choice he faces carries the weight of a lifetime of regret.
The ensemble cast also includes June van Merch, Mila Guy, Daneel van der Walt, Charlene Brouwer, André Weideman, Melanie du Bois, and Danny Ross.
The quiet moment beside the bed
Despite the weight of the themes at play, Corné is clear about the emotional core he and René wanted the series to hold. It is not a show that wallows in its darkness; it is one that reaches for hope.
“The series is built on that feeling a parent gets when they have put their child to bed and watch them sleeping peacefully. It may have been a long day filled with emotion, outbursts, guilt and impatience, but then you look at them and think: tomorrow, I will do better. In that quiet moment beside the bed, love, hope, and a new resolve emerge. That is really the heart of the series.”
Beter as Gister premieres on Monday, 30 June at 8pm on kykNET (DStv Channel 144), and will be available on DStv Stream and Catch Up.
