No matter how disarming his interviewers are, Youp van ‘t Hek continues to ignore things a bit. Arms folded, his usual sullen look. God, he starts whining about non-alcoholic beer again. In An extraordinary conversation (NPO 1), the comedian is questioned by a group of people with autism.
That is not completely harmless. One of the interviewers calls him “old fart” and “little old Youpie”. Another calls him “a bit stupid” because it took him eight years to complete his secondary education. The comedian turns it into a chat; After all, they are all there without a diploma and that is going quite well. One man protests. He points out that he has three swimming diplomas.
This new interview program is originally French, Les Rencontres du Papotin. The makers of the hit film Intouchables were once interviewed by Le Papotina magazine where only journalists with autism work. The filmmakers were so impressed by this unpredictable, lively conversation that they devised a version for television. The broadcast with President Macron gave the channel France 2 a viewing figure record in 2023.
The interviewers are actually more interesting than Van ‘t Hek. Intriguing minds, special personalities. You would actually like to know more about them. And the concept works: you get surprising, special television. One of the participants sings an arrangement of his Christmas hit ‘Flappie’ for the guest in which she takes a strong swipe at education. The comedian receives a painting of the regretted Christmas rabbit. Another interviewer wants to become president of the Netherlands. How would Van ‘t Hek approach that? Interacting with imaginary friends is also a normal topic of conversation in this setting.
Strangely enough it goes An extraordinary conversation not until April. It is still unknown who the guests will be.
Innocent people
In the NOS Journal On Friday, the NIOD war institute sounded the alarm about the Central Archives for Special Legal Procedure (CABR), which has been online since January 1. This contains files of 425,000 Dutch people who were suspected of collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War. Due to an intervention by the minister, you can now search by name, but you will not see any further files. This leads to a lot of unrest because you cannot see whether someone was rightly accused or not. Quite relevant – after the war the Dutch were so enthusiastic about reporting fellow countrymen that at least 85 percent of the list of names consisted of innocent people.
Lex Runderkamp follows for the three-part series The war that never ends (Friday, NPO 2) citizens doing research in the archive. The second part features Stephanie Biesheuvel. As she opens blue folders, she mutters: “Aunt Miep… Uncle Wim again… Uncle Cor from the murder squad… … Gosh, my whole family is passing by.” Biesheuvel gradually discovered that her family was full of active Nazis. Some thick file folders, which are held together by a string, receive extra attention: “The moment you have a string, you have a lot on your plate.”
Her great-grandfather had a greengrocer in the Jordaan, with a view of the Anne Frank House, and diagonally opposite a competitor who supplied the people in hiding with vegetables. Was he the traitor, Biesheuvel wonders. A researcher from the Anne Frank House thinks it is unlikely. He even thinks that there was no betrayal at all, but a raid for another matter. So bad luck.
Biesheuvel’s reasons for delving so deeply into her wrong family are not entirely clear. Well, she just wants to know. That’s probably enough.