Bakkum (52°34′N 4°39′E / 52.567°N 4.65°E / 52.567; 4.65) is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Castricum and lies about 12 km southwest of Alkmaar. It is the oldest village in Castricum and the closest to the shore.

In 2001, the town of Bakkum had around 2680 inhabitants. This includes the neighbourhood of Bakkum-Noord (550 inhabitants) which is sometimes identified as a separate village.

Paul Henri de Leeuw (born March 26, 1962 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor.

De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. Though satire was only a part of these shows and much of its humour was essentially harmless, he came into publicity with satire about Dutch show business personalities who were often ridiculed. Besides, many obscure musical acts were featured in his shows, many of which managed to gain national fame after they had been in De Leeuw's show (e.g. Twarres and René Klijn, a former boyband member who contracted AIDS).^{[citation needed]} VARA has since continued his shows apart from a few interruptions, often with considerable success.

In the early nineties, Paul de Leeuw also had some shows celebrating the new year. In the 1993-1994 show he satirized the new commercial television station RTL 5 by announcing another new station, "RTL 6" (RTL six, beter dan niks (lit. better than nothing)). This led to a lawsuit by the RTL company, who demanded that De Leeuw withdraw his joke.