In the series Icons we always add a new portrait to the gallery of honor of North Holland greats. This week that is presenter Maartje van Weegen. She was the face of it revolutionary half past five news. She also had high-profile conversations with members of the Royal Family.
biography
name: Maartje van Weegen
born: Bussum, 1950
profession: presenter (radio, television), reporter Royal Family
It had been a while since Maartje van Weegen last walked over the editorial staff of the NOS news. That was not noticeable in the responses, by the way. As a news icon, she was of course also recognized by young editors with whom she never worked.
It has become busier at the editorial office. Since 2007, when she announced her retirement from TV, many disciplines have been added, especially online. “Because there were no computers in my day,” says Maartje van Weegen. We had a fax machine, a typewriter, and a landline telephone.
What made half past five so special?
It was revolutionary for Dutch journalism. You already had the seven o’clock news, the eight o’clock news and the Youth News. What were you supposed to do with a news at half past five? But it turned out to be a very well-watched journal.
How different was it?
It was ten minutes. The first five minutes was the overview of the news: very short, but that you knew what was going on in the world. Then a report for two and a half minutes and finally a conversation live in the studio. That was also different.
“My voice remains calm, but sometimes my heart was pounding so hard that I thought: the microphone hears my heart pounding”
Live on air wasn’t as common in the 1980s as it is today. A live connection with America caused great excitement in the editorial office. “That was new then. And as a presenter on the tube five days a week. That was also new. I was half past five.”
To illustrate this, she comes up with two beautiful anecdotes. “My father was in the hospital. And I also presented Het Capitool at that time, which was live on Sunday. He went to the conversation room, where the television was also on. There were two ladies who said: Maartje van Weegen on television! It’s not yet half past five. That was all in their heads. I also heard, when I went to eight o’clock, that things were completely out of order in a clinic. That was a fixed point for them. When I was there , they went to eat. Isn’t it wonderful?”
Half past five
The team of half past four was a close-knit group. “I’ve always enjoyed working in a team,” says Van Weegen. “And we all had to think about this together: how do you do it, how do you approach it, what is the tone.”
It was a different way of reporting news, a different way of writing texts. Text with image. If you see a giraffe, don’t say: this is a giraffe. People know that. But helping people understand the news. That caught on.
Disasters
The most interesting broadcasts, however horrific the news sometimes, were the disasters and the wars. But that certainly also applied to the elections. The big events. Sometimes things went wrong in the hectic pace. Maartje van Weegen certainly thought it was special to solve this together.
“I was always pleasant for directing. My voice remains calm. Sometimes my heart pounded so hard that I thought: the microphone hears my heart beating. But I remained calm. Of course there were situations where you all going crazy because the connection doesn’t want to.”
Royal house
Maartje van Weegen certainly also acquired fame as a reporter for the Royal Family. At the end of the nineties there were so many important moments on the agenda, including with the princes getting married, that the NOS wanted someone to report on it. That was Maartje van Weegen.
Was it difficult to discuss things with members of the Royal Family? How did it go?
It’s not like you do normal editorial work. That you call someone and you say: I would like to talk about that and that. Do you have time, can you come and when? So you always had preliminary conversations.
I spoke to Juliana and Bernhard in 1987. Then I was still on the half past five news. And in 2000 with Queen Beatrix, she had been Queen for twenty years. It’s pretty much like CEOs or other people in positions of responsibility. You agree on what the framework is. Within that you ask your questions and they are normal conversations.
Especially the interview with Juliana and Bernhard in 1987 was remarkable in several respects. For example, Juliana became genuinely angry (“that’s not true, that’s not true!) after van Weegen stated that the old queen should never be contradicted. A flaming argument followed. The conversation became so legendary that visitors to the recent exhibition about Juliana in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam could watch the conversation again.
“Juliana was quite uninhibited,” Van Weegen recalls. Later, some people know that from the dementia that Juliana later came to suffer from. But according to Van Weegen that was certainly not the case.
She still read all the newspapers and you could talk to her about anything. I thought she was a very special woman. She also wanted a conversation, not an interview. So I had put everything in my head and not worked everything out on paper.
The moment Juliana gets so emotional, do you think: YES!
No, I hadn’t at all. I was just interested.
But did they feel comfortable with you?
Apparently so. But it wasn’t ordinary. Now that I’m old, I sometimes think: it wasn’t normal. No, it was special.
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