| Genre: | Crime, Drama |
| Director: | Tereza Kopáčová, Tomáš Mašín |
| Starring: | Lukáš Vaculík |
| Country: | Czech Republic |
| Language: | Czech |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 10 |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Network: | ČT1 |
The Defender (Ochránce) is a Czech drama television series, that premiered on Czech Television in 2021.[1] Series also appeared at Serial Killer festival.[2] It won Czech Film Critics' Award in category "Outside Kino."[3]
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.[4]
Director of the ČT1 program Milan Fridrich mentioned that spin-off is in production.[5] On 19 March 2024 Czech Television announced series Ratolesti which was called thematical sequel to The Defender. It is set for broadcast in 2025.[6]