The Defender (2021 TV series)

The Defender is a Czech drama television series, that premiered on Czech Television in 2021. Series also appeared at Serial Killer festival. It won Czech Film Critics' Award in category "Outside Kino."

Series focuses on a teacher Aleš Pelán who becomes School Ombudsman to stand up for children, parents and teachers in need. Pelán's cases include teacher bullied by her students, investigation of a pupil's suicide, girl who has never attended school, parents of students harassed by their classmate or sexual abuse of students by their teacher. All episodes are inspired by real cases.

Cast

 * Lukáš Vaculík as Aleš Pelán
 * Iveta Dušková as Jana Pelánová
 * Jaroslav Plesl as Pavel Havlík
 * Barbora Kodetová as Marta Beková
 * Agáta Červinková as Barbora Černá
 * Pavel Řezníček as Petr Starý
 * Jiří Havelka as Marcel Suchý
 * Petra Hřebíčková as Kristýna Kurzová
 * Jan Vondráček as inspektor Jarošík
 * Lucie Ducháčková as Sára Jermanová
 * Vladimír Javorský as MUDr. Luboš Pivec
 * Miroslav Vladyka as Václav Škvára

Spin-off
Director of the ČT1 program Milan Fridrich mentioned that spin-off is in production. On 19 March 2024 Czech Television announced series Ratolesti which was called thematical sequel to The Defender. It is set for broadcast in 2025.