This is not a mirage on the horizon.
No, almost fifty years after its creation, France 3 is resurrecting
“
Thalassa
”
.
Under the leadership of a man, Georges Pernoud, the show was the first to highlight the sea and sailors on television, from 1975. For thirty-seven years, the host covered all areas maritime, transforming the program, over the decades, into a real institution.
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With the announcement of his departure in 2017, the show lost part of its soul... but did not disappear from the air.
The torch was taken up by Fanny Agostini from 2017 to 2019 then by Sabine Quindou from the end of 2020. Then the broadcast, weekly on France 3, is scheduled only in the summer on France 5. Until the sinking.
Read alsoDiego Buñuel leaves his post as program director at France Télévisions to take the helm of “Thalassa”
Today, the public service seems truly determined to give it a new anchor in its grids.
“
“Thalassa”
was never abandoned, but we are launching a new version.
We felt the need to restore its letters of nobility with renewed ambitions
,” explains Nicolas Daniel, director of magazines at France Télévisions.
This edition scheduled at 9:10 p.m. is intended to be in keeping with the times, adding a new dimension to the traditional sea magazine.
“That of extreme adventures by going into contact with the elements, including where there may be danger,”
continues Nicolas Daniel, without yet specifying the broadcast dates of the next “Thalassa: extreme adventures” (four issues have been filmed).
“Less sailing and fishing”
To embody this more modern version, Diego Buñuel, former war reporter and short-lived program director for France Télévisions, takes the helm.
“I covered every conflict zone on the planet for seventeen years.
It makes me feel good to abandon humanity to its madness to find a nature where all species coexist
,” he confides.
A regular on escape programs with “Les Nouveaux Explorateurs” on Canal+ or “Instinct Animal” on France 2, he is particularly keen to shine in the field.
“Which was not the case at the time of Georges Pernoud, who launched his subjects on set or from his boat moored on the Seine
,” explains the man for whom the image quality of the reports, shot in CinémaScope, is primordial.
“We have remained faithful to this sharing of the love of the sea”
Diego Buñuel
Far from considering the legacy left by Pernoud as heavy to bear, Diego Buñuel perceives it as a source of excitement, full of joy at taking over a “brand” which has made so many viewers travel and discover the sea and the oceans.
Adapting the program to his personality, without losing its DNA, this is the challenge that he takes up rather very well in this first adventure.
“We have remained faithful to this sharing of the love of the sea. Always placing the exploration of the marine world at the center of the subject, but with more nature, environment, adventures and a little less sailing and fishing"
, specifies the Franco-American journalist, who does not hesitate to swim with tiger sharks or abseil from a dizzying cliff in Peru.
The program offers thrills, not just out of a taste for risk.
It is part of a real desire to raise public awareness.
“We are talking about a threatened environment that must be preserved,”
insists Nicolas Daniel.
“Over the years, I have observed the degradation of the marine environment.
My role will be to highlight these differences.
This is what allows us to support the viewer in their reflection on the sea and its developments
,” says the new presenter, who spent his childhood diving with his father.
More than a simple facilitator, Diego Buñuel intends to play the role of watchman.
A sentinel of this world of silence which has changed a lot since the oceanographic campaigns of Commander Cousteau.
All that remains, as the late Georges Pernoud (1947-2021) did, is to wish him
“Good luck!”
»
.