Quite a sit, the finale of The perfect picture (RTL4). Interrupted bycommercials, it took an hour and 36 minutes for the winner to win. It was notyet announced whether twitterers shouted that they thought from episode 1 thatthe jury would go for Linda Hakeboom. I actually thought very little. At mostI had some trouble with the decor.
The last two remaining participants (out of eight) completed their finalassignments in Iceland. Geysers, waterfalls, black beaches, the northernlights. I’m so afraid that if you ever see all that in person again, you’llthink: the pictures were better. When will you see something you’ve never seenbefore on screen? Reality can just ruin the picture. Tourists, for example,who all want to (re)create a perfect picture.
You can now see the northern lights constantly passing by in a Christmascommercial. Son picks up his not very old father from the old people’s home(they don’t even exist anymore), lies to him that he has won the State Lotteryand takes him on his last big, expensive trip. Snow plains, dog sled ride,northern lights. When he delivers his father back to his home, he confesses toa caretaker that he still has to win that prize.
Don’t wait for luck to happen to you, the State Lottery wants to say with thecommercial. “Don’t delay your happiness.” Aha, and luck is spending a fortunethat you don’t have (yet) and most likely won’t win either. The thirty millioneuro prize money in the year-end lottery, says the director of the advertisingagency Adformation , ‘is the second best prize’. Luck is not winning thegrand prize, winning the grand prize is luck?
The winner of The perfect picture received a 10 for one of her photos, whichis the first time. The jury got goosebumps at Linda Hakeboom’s fashion photo.They thought it was a dream, art, pure perfection. But Geraldine Kemper’s 10min was also breathtaking, extremely strong, a shot from a fairy tale. Perhapsnot very original superlatives, but flowerier than ‘fat’, that word I haveheard countless times. Fat waterfall, fat gorge and fat was also the photo ofthe northern lights from Hakeboom. Do me perfect then.
Godson of Queen Elizabeth
Later that evening, reality caught up again. I looked at Highclere Castle:Real life in the setting of the English series. The castle in which theseries Downton Abbey has been recorded, really exists and a real Lord andLady live there. The estate has been owned by the Carnarvon family since 1679.The eighth Duke’s name is George, and he was the page of honor and goddaughterof Queen Elizabeth. His castle looks exactly like it does in the series, butin the five episodes that all air this week, we see how hard he has to workfor it.
And it costs me money. Ten thousand pounds, per day (more than 11,000 euros).A handful of people to do all the work. Two to dust the 200 rooms every day.One driver, who is also a receptionist and Easter bunny. One chef. There is abutler, but he also sells sausage rolls in a food truck at events and I’veseen Lady Carnarvon slide off a blow-up castle.
Buses full of tourists park on the castle grounds, for £27.50 visitors can geta guided tour. The castle has become a company, the owners managers in the_hospitality._ The 2,000 hectares of land are used for livestock andagriculture.
When the lambing starts on the sheep farm, the giving birth ewe has to wait awhile before giving birth to her second lamb. The Lady sits down next to herin the straw, the assistant focuses the camera. The lamb is pulled from itsmother by two legs. And then another one. A triplets. Click, click, click.Perfect. That goes straight to Instagram.