Derek Watts: 30 years of Carte Blanche
Derek Watts looks back on the highs, lows and funny bits of his marathon 30-year career on Carte Blanche
THE world is fast-paced, ever-changing and relentlessly developing and sometimes it’s hard to keep up and make sense of it all. But if there’s one constant South Africans have been able to count on for the past 30 years it’s this: every Sunday we can tune in to a show that grips and informs us while keeping us abreast of what’s happening on our often perplexing planet.
And the man who’s been in front of the cameras since day one is a towering block of a guy who’s become a household name across the country.
To many, Derek Watts is Carte Blanche. Yes, there are several talented presenters sharing the couch and going out into the field to ask dodgy people difficult questions. But Derek (69) is the best-known of the lot – the guy who’s made the M-Net staple his life’s work.
And now here the 1,98m giant is, welcoming us into his home in Bryanston, Johannesburg, with one of the miniature Yorkshire terriers of his wife, Belinda, dwarfed in his huge hands.
“This is Diesel,” Derek says as the little scrap growls lightly, clearly protective of this hulking human. “We have another Yorkie, Gucci, who’s somewhere in the house.”
He escorts us to the back patio with its lush backdrop of lawn, trees and shrubs. Belinda, who works in welfare, is the one who maintains the garden so well, Derek says.
It’s incongruous seeing him here today, the family man opposed to the hardened newshound whose work has landed him in potentially life-threatening situations. He thrives on his work, he says. “I never get bored. On Carte Blanche we’ve done everything from Parktown prawns to the Boipatong massacre and state capture. It’s impossible to get tired of it. We’ve moved with the times.”
He reels off the situations he’s been in. A visit to the city of Mostar in the aftermath of the Bosnian War – the place was under siege and Derek and the crew had to navigate the so-called Sniper’s Alley.
A journey aboard American aircraft carrier the USS George Washington soon after the 9/11 terror attacks. Trips during the turbulent ’80s to the townships where he and the crew were caught in crossfire between locals and the police.
“A policeman was hit right next to the door where I was sitting,” he recalls. “I opened the door and pulled him into the vehicle. We sped to the hospital. There was a lot of blood and I thought he would bleed to death in my arms.”
Fortunately he made it.
THERE were lighter moments too. Derek recalls one he’d really rather forget. “Ruda [Landman, a former co-presenter] and I were on set and ready to broadcast. I pulled a funny face to get her and the production team to laugh.
“Ruda kept trying to get me to stop but I kept pulling faces. After a bit I realised we’d actually been on air for a while already. Luckily nobody complained.”
He reveals he’s been a little irresponsible at times. “I went scuba-diving at Isla del Sol [an island in Bolivia].
“I hadn’t done a diving course and didn’t know what I was doing. We were looking for treasure. If something had gone wrong, I’d have been a goner.”
Then there was a close call when he went mountain-climbing in the Drakensberg with professional climber Sean Wisedale, who’s summited all seven of the world’s highest peaks.
“I was losing my grip and I said to Sean I didn’t think I was going to make it. Sean was holding on to a narrow ledge and I could see something was wrong. He said he didn’t think he was going to make it either. But miraculously we made it to the top.”
Derek has interviewed many people over the past three decades. One that stands out is Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest and the first woman to complete the Seven Summits.
“A helicopter dropped us at [Everest’s] Base Camp 1 and we had to wait there for her. It wasn’t climbing season and we were left completely on our own. Luckily the helicopter came back for us.”
There have been tragedies too during his years on the job. Cameraman Rick Lomba died in 1994 after being mauled by a tiger during filming.
And in 2013 cameraman Dudley Saunders was killed when he was hit by a train while filming.
One of the strangest experiences Derek has had was when the team went in search of primate-hunters in Cameroon.
“We took a taxi and saw some pygmies. Eventually we found a primate-hunter, someone who hunts for bushmeat. It was quite shocking when he showed us the cabinets where they smoked the [meat of] animals.
“The taxi had no lights and it became too dark for us to drive back. We had to spend the night in the jungle with no equipment, food or protection.
“We were attacked by mosquitoes. The hunter offered us food and we made him promise it wasn’t primate meat. But we’ll never know.”
DEREK is the first to admit he’s a softie at heart. “I become emotional easily when it comes to child or animal abuse. I can’t stand it,” he says. “We once did a story about a little girl who’d been stolen from hospital. It was extremely traumatic – but my heart soared when she was found two years later.
“Stories about child transplant patients also make me emotional.”
But his soft heart shouldn’t be mistaken for weakness – he’s not afraid of confrontation.
“Luckily I’ve never been in a physical fight. Most skirmishes usually involve the cameraman – when the subject doesn’t want to be filmed and they shove the camera away or try to cover the lens. But even that doesn’t happen too often.”
Is he afraid of anything? Well, he’s scared of small spiders and big and bulky cage boxers. But that’s about it.
Derek’s work often kept him from his wife, son Tyron (27), a digital marketer, and daughter Kirsti (25), who has a degree in business economics.
“I was away from home a lot when they were growing up and that put a lot of pressure on them. But they always understood and I always brought them back toys from my travels. To them I’m just their dad.”
He doesn’t mind people recognising him in public and stopping to have a chat. “I go everywhere, from the local Spar to large sports events. I like talking to and being with people.
“If I hadn’t been with Carte Blanche I probably would still be a sports commentator,” says Derek, a Sharks supporter who started his TV career on the programme Topsport.
When he was younger he enjoyed playing and coaching squash. Although he’s not actively involved in sport at the moment he likes watching it on TV. And every now and again he’ll practise his golf putt on his synthetic tee.
“Something few people know is I stand on my head a few minutes every morning. It lets the blood flow to my brain.”
Does he have any plans to call it a day? He is, after all, past retirement age. There’s an emphatic “no”. Derek isn’t done with the show – not by a long shot.
“I want to work there for the next 100 years.”