televisionBertje de Man (81), a viewer of “Gert's table”, contacted our editors and was extremely disappointed to learn that she was no longer allowed to sit in the audience on the program due to her age. “I was allowed to do that last year. “Now it seems I'm too old,” she says, filled with confusion. She suspected discrimination, but it turns out nothing could be further from the truth.
At the age of 80, the woman was able to admire Geert Verhulst up close on the program last year. Now that she's 81, she's hit a wall. Like last time, she filled out the correct form on the In The Picture stage, and it was explained that audience members had to be between 16 and 80 years old. Bertje turned out to be old, much to her dismay. “I'm fit and healthy and interested in everything. Understanding is who can understand,” she said. “Certainly when Gert's Table deals with topics of interest to older people, such as dementia recently, we should also be able to attend those recordings ourselves.” Bertje spoke about ageism: “These days, we are isolated from everything, while young, beautiful people always sit in the front row.”
Fortunately, there is no intentional discrimination in Bertje's recording failure, as we hear from Play4, In The Picture and production company Dedsit. “We were never aware of this age restriction here, so it's good that it's being highlighted in this way,” Play4 said. So where is the error? “We have now discovered that we have a technical error and have already contacted In The Picture to resolve this issue as quickly as possible,” confirms Dedsit founder James Cook. “We certainly haven't consciously excluded those over 80. The more the merrier, regardless of age!
The story got an extra nice twist for Bartji who uncovered the problem. The makers of Gert's Table have personally invited her to another broadcast. “I can start watching this month,” she told us, smiling. “Luckily I can visit the hairdresser first.”
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