Are you a real Molloot? Then you still have to know Cor van Driel (85) from Etten-Leur. He was one of the most striking participants from the Wie is the Mol history. He participated in the second season, in Scotland, which was then played with unknown Dutch people. Following the final of the 25th anniversary season, which takes place on Saturday evening, we visited him.
At the end of 1999, the very first season of ‘Wie is de Mol’ was broadcast. No people from Brabant participated in that series, which took place in Australia. But it did give Cor the idea to sign up for season 2.
“My wife and I were watching that first season together and then I said to her: I want this too! What a fun game!”
“I immediately indicated the organization that I will come across younger than my age.”
The retired manager enjoyed the exciting assignments that the participants received for the molars. Ranging from doing a bungee jump to rafting and surviving on an uninhabited island. And above all the search for the traitor within the travel group, the one who tries to keep the group spot as low as possible.
“All fairly young people took part in that first season,” Cor noticed. But he did not see his age – at that time 61 years old – as an obstacle. “I indicated the organization that I am coming younger. And I was allowed to come by!”
“At the first audition, they were already convinced that they had to take me with them.”
“Forty or fifty were invited to four thousand registrations,” Cor remembers. “I had to come to an audition five times. That fifth time, Annemoon said of the production that they were already convinced that I should go to Scotland on the first audition.”
During the game, viewers got to know Cor as a driven, very fanatic candidate. Someone with a mission: looking together for the mole. The other candidates played much more individualistic. He did not hide his dissatisfaction with that during the broadcasts.
“I was so angry with myself!”
He sincerely disappointed when assignments failed by the mole. As with the assignment to keep time in a forest hut for a night.
“I realized that De Mol was wasting something there. I thought I saw that a check mark was missing on the list. I still wanted to put that on the paper, but I didn’t do that in the end. When presenter Angela Groothuizen then indicated that the assignment had not been made, I was so angry with myself! I just had to put that check on.”
“I had to play baguette bag very much.”
A memorable assignment during the season in Scotland was playing the bagpipes. Cor had to learn that together with his fellow candidates Yvonne and then. That became a big laughing spectacle. “The only thing I manage in terms of music is to turn on the radio,” laughs Cor. “I am very amazed and then I had to play bagpipes!”
The success of the assignment also completely departed from Cor. Whereas sales manager then taught the assignment from an experienced Scottish bagpipe player and he then had to teach it to Military Yvonne, Cor had to take care of the final of the assignment. He had to play the tune ‘father Jacob’ for the group.
During the first time, Cor did not get any decent note from the bagpipe. While the group was already laughing, Cor surprised the group and he still surprised the first tunes of father Jacob. The group guessed the song, which led to crazy joy and a proud smile on the face of Cor himself.
“They called me the coolest grandfather of the Netherlands.”
Another assignment where Cor made an impression was when descending a rock wall. He did not hesitate for a moment and accepted the challenge. “One of the participants called me after that abseiling ‘the coolest grandfather in the Netherlands’. I thought that was such a nice comment! But the makers did not incorporate that comment in the broadcast!”
Cor disappeared from the game program in the fifth episode. He had the elimination test with which every episode is concluded the worst of all participants. Despite his fanaticism, he did not have the mole in the picture. In addition, Cor had the misfortune that he was throwing an exemption through head or coin.
“I would really like to participate again!”, The former manager sighs. His age is not an obstacle, he emphasizes. “I can still quite a lot at the age of 85.”
That the program makers know.