The animator Philippe Gildas is dead
Le Figaro
10/28/2018
The journalist and host Philippe Gildas has died at the age of 82, announced this morning by his former sidekick, Antoine de Caunes. He died during the night of Saturday to Sunday following a bout with cancer. According to Europe 1, where he worked for a long time, he had been hospitalized for seven weeks in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. A man of radio and television, he was one of the first to mix journalism and entertainment in France, notably at the helm of Canal +'s flagship program "Nulle Part Ailleurs". Philippe Leprêtre was born November 12, 1935 in Auray in Morbihan. At the end of the 1950s, he was a student of classics at the Sorbonne, he understood that he was not made for professors and turned to journalism on the advice of Jean Yanne, Breton like him.
He started as an editorial secretary at the newspaper Combat, then at Radio Luxembourg, the ancestor of RTL. Still under the flag, he must urgently choose a pseudonym one night when he takes the antenna to plug a hole. It will be Gildas, the first name of his eldest son. He creates the morning, this slice of information that must accompany the listener of his awakening to his work, which he will be one of the pillars, to RTL and Europe 1. In 1969, he follows the ORTF Pierre Desgraupes to mount the writing of the first channel. He presents the television news, "grand-messe", which he helps to set the rules as editor-in-chief. He goes through France Inter then integrates Europe 1, where this father of three sons meets his second wife, the animator Maryse.
NPA, never seen on TV
The journalist also keeps a foot on the television. On the proposal of Pierre Bellemare, he becomes a games animator and presents "The head and the legs" then "The treasure hunt". He became station director in 1983 and created the Top 50, the first record sales measure in France. In 1985, Pierre Lescure, boss of Canal +, invites him to join him in the adventure of the first private channel of France which has just been born. The two men are going to realize an idea that has been in their head for 20 years: to make a talk show that mixes journalism and entertainment. The formula, which has flourished since, is unpublished on French television. Philippe Gildas first tested the concept in the middle of the day with "Direct", before settling two years later in front of the 20-hour news.
To encourage viewers to subscribe, the only constraint of the program broadcast in the clear is to keep the promise of the encrypted channel by showing what is found ... "Nowhere else". Alain Decaux can dissert on the petomanes to introduce a sketch of dummies, Professor Cabrol, famous surgeon of the heart, to share his passion of the opera with the leader of the CGT Henri Krasucki. In addition to Les Nuls, the show brings out Jerome Bonaldi and his gadgets, Philippe Vandel, Karl Zero and of course Antoine de Caunes, hitherto confined to musical broadcasts. For 10 years, "NPA" dictates modes and new rules of humor on television.
In parallel, Philippe Gildas creates the production company Ellipse, which produces the game "Pyramid" and the animated series "The Adventures of Tintin". In 1997, he gave his presenter chair Nulle Part Ailleurs Guillaume Durand and hosts other programs for Canal +. After taking the reins of i-TELE for a time, he launched in 2007 the Vivolta channel, dedicated to seniors. A great collector of travel guides and an unrepentant talker, Philippe Gildas had a regret: not to have been a reporter.
GILDAS, Philippe (Philippe Lepretre)
Born: 11/12/1935, Auray, Morbihan, France
Died: 10/28/2018, Paris, Île-de-France, France
Philippe Gildas’ western – producer:
The New Zorro (TV) – 1990-1993