Cinema and drama · 1976
Nick Verlaine ou Comment voler la tour Eiffel
(Nick Verlaine, or How to Steal the Eiffel Tower)
Summer 1976: in this TF1 crime series directed by Claude Boissol, the television newsreader is me. A screen appearance in my own role.
In the 1970s, when a screenwriter wanted a story to feel real, he had the television speak. And for the television to feel real, you needed a real newsreader. That is how I found myself in the credits of a crime series.
"Nick Verlaine ou Comment voler la tour Eiffel" is a series of six fifty-five-minute episodes, directed by Claude Boissol and shown by TF1 in the summer of 1976. I appear from the very first episode, "Nick Verlaine prend la route", broadcast on 8 July, and in others after it. My part: the television newsreader. It did not take much acting.
A familiar face
The exercise says something about the period. France had only three channels, and those who read the news were part of the furniture in every living room. Seeing us pop up in a drama created an instant effect of reality. The same year I made another appearance in the series "Histoires peu ordinaires", and two years later in the cinema, in "Vas-y maman".
That summer I was in fact leading a double life on screen: within days of each other, TF1 was showing the series and the eight o'clock news was running my reports from Hollywood. "Nick Verlaine" is available today on madelen, the INA's streaming platform.
Key facts
- A TF1 series of six 55-minute episodes, directed by Claude Boissol.
- First episode broadcast on 8 July 1976.
- Credited as "the TV newsreader" in Jacques Baudou and Jean-Jacques Schleret's reference book on French crime series.
- Another appearance the same year: the series "Histoires peu ordinaires".
See also
