“The Belgians are always the bravest!”

Saturday 14th December 2024 07:13 PM

Starting this Sunday at 8:30 p.m., Tipik is offering four 100% Belgian numbers of “Fort Boyard” for the holidays.

Nearly twenty years after the RTL version, the Belgian flag flies again over “Fort Boyard”. For this very “Tipik” season, Olivier Minne takes the same role as on France 2 and accompanies four teams of Belgian candidates who will try to empty the treasure of Father Fouras for the benefit of Viva for Life.

Could we have imagined this Belgian version without you?

I was very happy to be offered it, and I didn’t expect it. When the management of RTBF contacted me, I didn’t even ask for a period of reflection, I immediately said that it would be with pleasure. And it’s also a way of getting back on Belgian broadcasts.

Will the Belgian format be different from what we see in the summer?

This is not the French “Fort Boyard”. We are going back to basics with a version “closer to the bone” (fewer characters and a refocusing on the trials, editor’s note) and which reminded me of my beginnings, more than twenty years ago. During filming, there are fewer technical interruptions. Emotions, whether joy or fear, are heightened.

The first team to face the Fort is made up of Gabriel Da Costa, Typh Barrow (who unfortunately broke his arm there), Sara De Paduwa, Nicolas Lacroix and Jill Vandermeulen

The trailer claims that the Belgians are the bravest. Do you confirm it?

How can you doubt it? The Belgians have always been the bravest. Old Jules wasn’t wrong. (Laughs).

Twenty-two years in the Fort and still no weariness or leaden feet?

First of all, if I had leaden feet, as we access the Fort by boat, I would slow it down a lot and I wouldn’t be forgiven… Secondly, the seasons are not the same. The proof: this year, I am finishing the French version and I am being called to host shows for Belgium. It was a fantastic surprise. Maybe one day it will be the public or the producer who will get tired of me, but I will never get tired of “Fort Boyard”.

Were you proud to see the Belgian flag flying over the Fort?

This aroused a strange emotion because it is only for foreign broadcasts that a national flag is raised. For France, there is none. It was special to see the black-yellow-red colors at the top of this “big rock”.

What do you miss about Belgium in Los Angeles, where you live?

Everything…and my family first. Belgians are sometimes a little grumpy, but you only need to be far from Brussels to realize that our country offers a good quality of life. And a capital with certain charm. As a Brussels resident, I feel a nostalgia that never leaves me.