Paul Haenen, the Dutch actor who has voiced the grumpy but loveable Bert on the Dutch version of Sesame Street for more than half a century, has announced his retirement from the role. The 80-year-old made the announcement on his television programme Margreet Dolman Begrijpt 't, broadcast on the commercial Dutch channel RTL 4, delivering the news partly through Bert's hand puppet. "Where are you, Ernie?" he said in character. "I miss you."

The decision was prompted by the death of Wim T. Schippers, the Dutch artist and television personality who had voiced Ernie — as well as Kermit the Frog and Count von Count — since Sesamstraat, the Dutch adaptation of the American children's series, first aired in the Netherlands. Schippers died in June at the age of 83, having worked in Dutch television and radio since the 1960s. Haenen had already paid public tribute to his long-time creative partner in a death notice published after Schippers' passing, writing in character as Bert: "Dear Ernie, you will still exist but you will never be the same. We had a good time."

Haenen said the prospect of working alongside a new actor voicing Ernie was the decisive factor in his choice to step back. "After 50 years, a new Ernie comes along, and I think: that is not my Ernie," he explained. Along with Bert, he will also give up the voice of Grover, a third character he has portrayed in the Dutch dub. Earlier this year, before Schippers' death, the two actors had reunited to record new episodes of Sesamstraat for Netflix, where the show continues to air in the Netherlands after regular television broadcasts of new episodes ceased some years ago.

Haenen said he hopes his departure will open the door for a new generation of performers, and he has agreed with the studio responsible for the Dutch dubbing that he will be involved in the search for his successor. The transition marks the end of an era for Dutch children's television: the pairing of Haenen and Schippers as Bert and Ernie had been a constant of Dutch broadcasting for more than five decades, making their voices as recognisable to generations of Dutch-speaking viewers as the original American cast is to audiences elsewhere.