Died in 2007, Jacques Martin is part of big names in the French audiovisual landscape through shows like The Little Reporter, The Lorgnette and So do, do, do in which appeared young comedians and TV hosts such as Laurent Gerra, Virginie Lemoine, Laurent Ruquier and Julien Courbet. But it’s mostly with the show The school of fans that he hosted from 1977 to 1998 that Jacques Martin became known to the general public. In this program which revealed future big names in song like Vanessa Paradis, Jacques Martin was friendly and approachable with the children, knowing how to put them at ease and ask them often offbeat questions.
Close to kids on TV, but not his own
However, the image presented by Jacques Martin in The school of fans did not necessarily correspond to reality. Father of eight children: David (born in 1961), Elise (born in 1965), Frédéric (born in 1973), Jean-Baptiste (born in 1976), Judith (born in 1984), Jeanne-Marie (born in 1987) , Juliette (born in 1994) and Clovis (born in 1999), Jacques Martin did not convey to them the same image as that which could be seen in the famous emission.
In Can’t wait for Sunday on France 2 Sunday June 12, one of his daughters, Elise, very rare on television, expressed herself on the way in which she lived the role of her father in Fan School. “I kept hearing, from my friends or at school: ‘How lucky you are to have a dad like that!’she confided. In The Fan School, he was close to the children. What he hasn’t really been with us. For me, this show hurt my heart the most. I know that was dad’s flagship show. The French loved this show. But me, it’s a show that I want to forget because dad showed up like he wasn’t with us.”
Guest of the famous red sofa of Michel Drucker, the eldest son of Jacques Martin, David and brother of Elise (their mother is Annie Lefèvre) gave a vision of his father different from that of his sister. “Me, I have the memory of a father really on me, controlling my every move, taking care of my schooling, worrying about anything that could affect me, dragging me with him everywhere… And unfortunately Elise experienced it very differently”, he estimated.