Ben Cramer believes that a star of the caliber of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk should simply be able to shout on the work floor. “I can imagine that he thought: Oetl*l, what are you doing!”
An owner who shouts on the work floor better watch out in 2023, because before you know it you will be canceled. It also happened to Matthijs van Nieuwkerk: he has been in prison for some time now because of his terrible behavior behind the scenes of De Wereld Draait Door, where he preferred to see people kneeling and saying sorry.
Mad bull
Ben Cramer, an artist who was popular in the 1930s, does not find this strange at all. If you are as big as Matthijs, then that should be possible, according to him. “I can well imagine that he could explode at times. Don’t forget that that man had a live broadcast every evening,” he says in the Weekend.
He continues: “If a tape is not started, so that he unexpectedly has to continue talking, I can well imagine that after the broadcast he ran like a mad bull to the production room and ranted: ‘What idiot didn’t start that tape?!”
Oetl*l
Ben says he does not explode at colleagues, but Matthijs also has a different status, he says. “I don’t know exactly how he did things, but I can imagine that he thought: Oetl*l, what have you done! And: what a piece of cake! I think Matthijs should be allowed to do that too, because he was under enormous tension.”
Ah, there we have the top sports argument again. If you’re on TV every day, you can apparently do anything, because it’s top sport. “Again, I don’t know the ins and outs, I know him superficially through a few visits to DWDD, but I do know that he is a very skilled man.”
‘Think about it’
Matthijs is a winner, Ben concludes. “I don’t think he meant it that way either, which is why everyone was so upset. His intention was simply: remember, next time this won’t happen again!”
“I rate him very highly and again, I hope he comes back. Otherwise it would be very sad.”