Van Wijck, 59, was born in Hasselt and trained as a journalist. Having started out on the radio, she moved over to television, serving time on the various editorial departments of what we now call the VRT: at Panorama, the news and Terzake. From about 2000 on, she began to take more of an onscreen role, interviewing politicians on Terzake, steering celebrities through the lengthy reminiscences of Spraakmakers and even presenting a quiz show.

Eventually her name became associated with De zevende dag, a Sunday lunchtime news and politics show that’s come to be absolutely central to the coming week’s news agenda, on a par with Meet the Press in the US or the old Weekend World in the UK. Van Wijck and Alain Coninx brought a softer tone to the show than their predecessors, and it’s that more congenial side that marked Van Wijck’s style since she stopped presenting De zevende dag in 2004.

She was then the presenter of the popular late-night magazine De laatste show, where she played host to a variety of guests from all corners of the celebrity world: not only those who have something to plug, but anyone who happens to be in the public eye on any given day, as long as it’s relatively light, to allow Flanders to go to bed with a smile. She gave up the job, though, in April last year.

Cobra TV promises to be “about culture in the broadest sense of the word, whether it’s a talented tattoo artist or a free jazz cellist who abuses his strings with a chain saw,” according to Canvas. It’s the public broadcaster’s latest attempt to tame the culture beast.

In De Standaard’s year-end round-up of the decade’s most influential celebrities, she started third, behind Goedele Liekens, who’s all about celebrity, and Phara de Aguirre, who’s all about hard news. It’s no accident that Van Wijck, whose talents bestride both camps, managed to overtake both of them and cross the finish line in first place.

http://cultuur.canvas.be