Creator of “Grosses Têtes” on RTL in 1977 and discoverer of a whole generation of comedians with “Le Petit Théâtre de Bouvard”, Philippe Bouvard died on Monday at the age of 96.
Tributes immediately flocked to the station, and as far as the Élysée, to salute the man many considered a pioneer, at the frontier of journalism and entertainment.
“Philippe Bouvard will have accompanied generations of French people with his voice, his spirit, his freedom of tone and his humor, this very French taste for a good word. France is losing a free figure, a Big Head,” President Emmanuel Macron underlined on X.
“He created impertinence on radio and television. (…) Thierry Ardisson, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, me perhaps, we are the children and grandchildren of Philippe Bouvard,” declared Laurent Ruquier, who succeeded him at the helm of “Grosses Têtes” in 2014 to rejuvenate the show.
With this program, “Philippe was able to make general culture accessible to all,” said Jean-Pierre Foucault, saluting “our master of all.”
Philippe Bouvard “has done more for the French language than half of the 40 mummies of the French Academy” but “was never rewarded for this popular effort”, regretted the navigator Olivier de Kersauson, historical pillar of the “Grosses Têtes”, whom Bouvard used to greet with an apostrophe which marked the program: “Good response from the Admiral!”
“He was a curiously, very endearing person. I never knew if he loved us or not,” reacted comedian Bernard Mabille, another figure on the show.
He “showed the way to entire generations”, greeted the president of the public group Radio France, Sibyle Veil.
For journalist Marc-Olivier Fogiel, Philippe Bouvard’s main asset was “not having borders”: “He was a journalist who could go from entertainment to seriousness.”
