What a week!

Television presenter Charles Saliba turns on the charm for Ramona Depares

Thirty years in television: that definitely makes me one of the old-timers. To think that my career on telly started quite by chance! I was planning to be a teacher, had in fact just finished the BA course at university and was planning on starting work immediately – were it not for the fact the requirements for teachers changed almost overnight. The government of the day suddenly decided that a BA degree was no longer enough to teach: fresh graduates had to enrol for another post-grad course.

I dug my heels in and refused to register for this new diploma, which of course meant that I couldn’t teach at all. And so I did a voice and a screen test for television. I was thinking: no way will they accept me. But at the time government was taking over ix-Xandir and a number of part-timers found themselves removed from ‘re-diffusion’. And so one fine afternoon Mannie Spiteri found himself without a presenter for an evening show. I got a phone-call and a summons: come over right now. Which I did, of course. When he told me that he needed someone to present the show that same evening – which was aired live, incidentally – my jaw dropped open. He said that this was a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I could grab or drop. I grabbed it, naturally. Not that I didn’t have some misgivings! The show included a one hour long discussion to be chaired by myself… can you imagine a novice coping with that kind of introduction? It was definitely a baptism of fire, but I must have been a success because I was immediately given the remaining shows until the end of the season.

It’s funny how certain things fell in place by themselves then. A year later I applied to join Radio Malta. Joe Grima, who was chief executive at the time, recognised my face from television and asked me whether I liked Italian music. I didn’t really, but I couldn’t very well say so. It was, once again, a unique opportunity that was knocking on my door. So I said "yes, of course" and started doing Discobolus, which was all about Italian songs. This radio show was my first real acquaintance with Italian music and before long I was an avid fan: everyone started calling me Charles "Discobolus" Saliba and people were very surprised when I decided to move from Italian songs on to other genres.

I’ve done many shows in my time, but a particular one remains close to my heart. Krome was a programme for youths which was unbelievably popular. So many people wanted to be part of the audience that we used to have to get security by the door. This was the first show I created, produced and presented and I’m still proud of it. For the last show there were so many people, half of them had to remain outside… Believe it or not, someone was so angry at not being allowed in that they actually let down all the tyres of my car.

The funny thing, perhaps, is that in all these years I was never actually a full-timer on radio and TV. Eventually I did decide to do the post-grad diploma and I started teaching. Today I’m in my fifth year as assistant head at the boys’ Junior Lyceum in Hamrun. I’m also in charge of the first and second formers, which means that I lead a very hectic day as they are always coming to me with some problem or other. Many people ask me whether it helps that the students know me from television. Perhaps it does, at least when it comes to communication, it’s a lot easier to speak to someone when they are already familiar with your face. But that’s where it all ends! If any student imagines that he’s going to take advantage from the fact that I am something of a public figure, it doesn’t take long to remove this illusion. I am a complete disciplinarian at school! My students often tell me that they can’t understand why I’m always laughing on telly when at school I’m so strict.

As you can gather, I thrive on contact with people both in my work as teacher and my career on television. It’s true that you don’t get immediate feedback from the public when you’re presenting a show, but the people do let you know whether they like you or not. Even a simple trip to the grocer will give you feedback! When you’re on television your privacy tends to disappear, but I love it when the people themselves come up to me. I love meeting new people, I adore being in a crowd and it’s very flattering to be recognised. You cannot work in television and not love people I guess. And of course, it does make conversation that much easier: no introductions are needed and there’s almost certainly always something to talk about.

Of course, there are some things that bother me in television: back-stabbing, for starters. Unfortunately it will always be present and television life is notorious for this. Then there is the malicious gossip that often revolves around people in the public eye – it can be very hurtful, especially as more often than not it is without foundation. Something else that bugs me is the excessive amount of comparisons with Italian variety shows. Whenever we put up a variety show in Malta it invariably gets compared to the other shows on Rai. Talk about unfair! The budget for one single Italian variety show by far exceeds the resources we get for a whole series and this makes a huge difference, I assure you.

By Ramona Depares