René van der Gijp knows for sure after reading some witness statements: Martien Meiland is a character. “Yes of course. This is just an actor,” said the 60-year-old football analyst.
The Meilandjes have taken up residence for a whole month in a terraced house in Uithoorn, which serves as the backdrop for their new TV soap Chateau Bijstand. They have been closely watched by local residents and they noticed that Martien does not walk through the streets hysterically at all in real life.
Different in real
René van der Gijp has read various witness statements and is now completely convinced. “Now that they’re in that house, I often read that they go to the butcher and the Gall & Gall and all that sort of thing. And then I read all the time that that man is completely different,” says the football analyst in VI Today.
Rene is not surprised. “Of course that is not so strange. If he’s as hysterical as he does on TV… If he’s 16 or 17 hours a day, it couldn’t be. Then he was in an institution. Then he was really in an institution. But of course he’s just in a blinded car.”
Actor Martien
Colleague Johan Derksen: “He plays a role?”
Rene: “Yes, of course. This is just an actor.”
Hélène Hendriks: “He does that successfully.”
René: “Sure, but it’s just an actor that man. Of course, that man only lasts ten minutes a day, that position in which he is.”
contemptuous
According to Johan, the Meilandjes are part of the decline of the entertainment industry. “The entertainment industry, the broadcasts they publish… I almost think it’s contempt of the public, because you’re being harassed with the Meilandjes, I can’t watch it.”
“And then I opened De Telegraaf of the week: two pages of a soap opera by Daddy Dave. Dave Roelvink, that’s what makes a soap opera. And then there’s also a whole story about Little Kleine, that makes me puke.”
type
The rumors that Martien is a character have been going on for years. According to the Story, he already caught him at the end of 2019. “Yes, very shocking. I just happened to talk to him on the phone. He doesn’t know my number and then he records with a completely different voice, much lower,” said a journalist from the magazine at the time.
It is sometimes said that daughter Maxime Meiland plays a character, but according to eyewitnesses that is not the case. “She’s so stupid in real life too.”