Alexander Klöpping drove to the farmhouse of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk in Eefde in Gelderland. What did he find there? “A very muddy situation, where things are also very ugly.”
One million viewers of DWDD every week playing at his own kitchen table: it is nowadays the new reality for Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. The presenter may no longer serve a mass audience, but his former TV friends do not let him down. Alexander Klöpping recently visited him in Eefde.
Visiting Matthijs
Matthijs lives in a farmhouse in this village in Gelderland, where he was caught six months ago by a Story paparazzo while walking through the garden like a kind of bum. And Alexander has now paid a visit there, according to the latest episode of the hit podcast De Communicado’s.
Alexander begins: “It is very bad on a human level. When I look at him now, I just see someone who has calmed down a lot, because he also really comes from a time when everything was very hectic and I think it had grown a bit over his head. . And someone who really wants to learn. And I think that’s exactly what you should hope for from a man like that in a situation like that.”
Then media critic Victor Vlam asks him: “Have you spoken to him since then?”
Alexander: “Yes.”
Victor: “You talked to him on the phone or?”
Alexander: “I visited. Of course. You think it’s very crazy.”
Self invited
Victor: “I didn’t really expect it. Did he invite you or something?”
Alexander: “I invited myself, but I am very concerned about ehh…”
Victor: “But you just contacted him and you said, ‘I’ve seen everything that happened and I’m actually sorry about that.'”
Alexander: “Yes. So on a human level, I’m just really curious how he’s doing. But I am also very fascinated by the media dynamics, because there is also a kind of… So I sit there listening with great interest to the background of everything. So I’m also just very curious.”
“What did you notice?”
Victor: “What did you notice there?”
Alexander: “I’m not going to say that now. haha. No, those are conversations between each other. I wouldn’t say that on the podcast if we were having such a conversation. But yeah.”
Victor: “Yes, but you say he comes across as calmer. Someone who may have learned from the things that happened.”
Alexander: “I think this is what he… I think he also discovered that there is a world outside television that is very beautiful. And really wants… Yeah, is just really into this process. It’s just very busy.”
Victor: “Bitter?”
Alexander: “No, I don’t find him bitter at all.”
Big interview
Victor: “Can he come back?”
Alexander: “Do I think so? Yes, I think so, yes definitely. It’s all obvious what needs to be done. There must be an interview and we as a people must all start to believe that he has learned from it. I say that very cynically. But I think if he is just honest and tells what he experienced…”
He continues: “Then I think people will also understand his side of the story. Because so far it has only been about the other side of the story, which is also very essential and also very important. But shit complex.”
Huge stress
Victor: “And then you say with understanding for his part that there was also a lot of pressure on him, perhaps, that he also had to perform and that perhaps enormous stress was involved.”
Alexander: “There is also a side to the story with him. But I also speak to editors of the television program and I find that extremely intense to hear. I don’t think it really matters whose side you’re on. It’s just: this is a very muddy situation, where things are also very ugly, but they do, yes, go the way they go in the real world and are complex…”
Humble
Victor: “Do you think the Dutch are too quick to judge people?”
Alexander: “Well, I wish everyone would end up in such a media storm once in a while, because that’s really not very nice. I’ve had situations at Blendle that resembled media storms. I wish every journalist to experience that once, because it is… It does make you humble.”
The Communicados
The latest episode of De Communicado’s: