Dutch television has a curious reputation. It was responsible for Big Brother, The Mole, and Hello Goodbye. However, not Survivor (Swedish) or The Block (Australian unfortunately). Speaking of Hello Goodbye, I always keep an eye out for Joris Linssen at Schiphol, and in June I saw him interviewing people waiting at arrivals. Somehow I managed to delete the sneaky non-flash photo I took.
De Wereld Draait Door was one of the first shows I saw on Dutch television and eventually became regular evening viewing. Firstly, because Matthijs van Nieuwkerk is reasonably cute and secondly, I was fascinated by the mix of culture and politics and sport and science. As a reward for passing the Staatsexamen I promised myself a visit to a taping. Although my Dutch skill was not displayed on the phone trying to book a ticket — after several minutes of trying to say my postcode, and then saying it several times in English, we finally found my street. My initials on the ticket were also incorrect. Time to relearn the alphabet.
Most of the studios are in Hilversum, just outside Amsterdam, but there’s a small one in Amsterdam itself near the zoo. The public channels operate on a broadcaster system, where each approved broadcaster gets so many hours a week depending on their member count, not dissimilar to how SBS divides up the time available for different languages in Australia. VARA is the main resident at Studio Plantage in Amsterdam and broadcasts two daily programs from there, as well as several weekly shows.
VARA certainly treats its audiences well. On arrival at the studio, we were offered coffee and tea, and when we moved inside the studio at around quarter to seven, we were offered another drink. At around seven, Matthijs spoke for 5-10 minutes about the show, why the audience was important, what else happens at Studio Plantage, and a rundown of the guests, including co-host Yvon Kaspers, who hosts the local version of Farmer Wants a Wife. While we waited for ONM to finish, music was played in the studio and we could get drinks from the in-studio bar if we wished. A promo was recorded at 7:25pm and we went live at 7:30pm.
It didn’t even feel like 45-50 minutes. The action moves around the studio, so something is always happening. As I suspected, most is adlibbed — Matthijs even deviated ever-so-slightly from the autocue lead-ins. Afterwards, we were welcome to have a drink at the in-studio bar, while the crew set up the studio for Pauw & Witteman, which goes out at 11pm.
I got home just in time to see the repeat broadcast. Now I can say I’ve been on Dutch TV.
On the left hand side looking interested in Matthijs and Yvon
My Dutch is still yet to recover from spending most of the summer overseas, but I can still understand a fair bit. What I’m missing though is context. One of the guests on the show was from a 1980s children’s show called Theo en Thea, and when Matthijs mentioned her there was an audible “ooh-aah” in the audience. I’m sitting there thinking “who? what show?”. It turns out one of my Dutch colleagues (who said the next day that she saw me on TV) was also not familiar with this show.
It probably has to be one of the more out-there things I’ve done, but I think it’s a good show to support. I definitely want to return, and next time have dinner in the studio beforehand. If only they would sell the format to Australia as a replacement for the early evening tabloid shows.
Information on how to get tickets for VARA shows can be found at http://bijwonen.vara.nl. Tickets to DWDD cost €7 or are free for VARA members.
