Vincent Dedienne was 14 years old when “Le Maillon weak” arrived on TF1. He immediately loved this game, adapted from a BBC concept. “It was the perverse and brilliant mechanics that grabbed me first. There was nothing equivalent. A program which is both a game and a show, with such dramaturgy and leaving such room for writing, that did not exist,” explains the actor, now 37 years old.
At the time, host Laurence Boccolini, in accordance with the program’s specifications, did not spare the candidates. She sent them back to the ropes, when they gave wrong answers, with a good dose of acidic repartee and without a hint of a smile. “It’s so disruptive and great in this place, television, where everyone is very well received and wonderful. Here, it’s the opposite: you’re not welcome and you’re pretty much shit. It’s extremely tasty,” applauds Vincent Dedienne.
“I know how to say “You are the weak link” in every language”
To say he loved the game is an understatement. He is an absolute expert. At home, in Cruzille, in Mâconnais (Saône-et-Loire), the teenager avoided boredom by immersing himself in the forum dedicated to the show. “There I met a guy living in the Netherlands to whom I sent VHS tapes of the French version and he, in exchange, sent me videos of adaptations from all over the world. It lasted two years, we must have sent around fifty K7s, and I know how to say “You are the weak link” in all languages,” he says.
A quarter of a century later, this Dutch correspondent reconnected with him when he saw articles announcing that Vincent Dedienne was going to present a new version of “The Weak Link” in France: “It’s funny, we had completely lost sight of and he wrote to me on Instagram where he reminded me of our emails which he had all kept. »
Text message from Laurence Boccolini: “Do it, damn it!” »
In October, 20 Minutes had been able to confirm information from Var-Matin revealing that M6 was going to relaunch the game with the actor at the presentation. But the main person concerned initially denied it. Once yes, once no, once yes, the story took the form of a sketch. “There was nothing decided. The information came out when we didn’t yet know if we were really doing it, he assures us today. All this made me laugh so much that I added a little more. I purposely said no, yes, no, yes…” And in the middle of all this procrastination, he received this SMS from Laurence Boccolini: “Just do it! I place a sword of blessing on your shoulder.”
The first discussions with production began a little over two years ago, in a restaurant “in the depths of Belgium”. Vincent Dedienne was then filming the first season of Amateurs for Disney+, with BBC Studios France in co-production. The president of the latter, Pierre-Marie Gadonneix, was around the table. “When I found out I was having dinner with people from the BBC, I had lots of questions to ask them about ‘The Weakest Link’. It was the first time I had the opportunity to approach people who had a connection to the show. »
“He blew us away, he knew everything better than us,” recalls the producer. So when, a year later, the actor contacted him again to say “Why not remake “The Weak Link”? “, it was “obvious” that the idea was valid – the time being for nostalgia and the resurrection of the flagship brands of the early 2000s – and that Vincent Dedienne was best suited to embody it.
Isabelle Adjani and Muriel Robin were unable to participate
“I was the one who pissed everyone off for doing it. The BBC and M6 made my dream come true, confides the presenter for one evening. I was so happy that I insisted on being present at all the preparatory meetings. I wanted to see the decor being built, to participate in the music. »
This special evening, scheduled on M6 this Wednesday from 9:10 p.m., was filmed in April. Vincent Dedienne had carte blanche to select the personalities invited to participate for the benefit of the Women Safe & Children association: “I made it clear that it was out of the question that I would be nicer for all that and I wanted to ensure that we invite people who are not used to being in TV games. » From Clémentine Célarié to Bertrand Usclat, from Mehla Bedi to Marc Lavoine or Pierre-François Martin Laval and Julie Gayet, the casting is most eclectic. Isabelle Adjani, held in New York, and Muriel Robin, who also had scheduling problems, had to decline.
“I only knew Florence Foresti and Jeanne Cherhal personally,” explains Vincent Dedienne. Among the others, there are some that I still don’t know, moreover, because I didn’t have the opportunity to meet them after filming.” The actor made a point not to greet anyone before the start of recording: “If I had gone to see them in their dressing rooms to say ‘Thank you for being there, be careful, I’m going to be a bit of a tease’, it would have broken something. I think there were some who didn’t know the game well and were surprised. » He even had the impression that some were “paratunized”.
Vincent Dedienne, for his part, had “the fear of not having fun” in hosting this game. “When all the stars were ready and it was time for me to go, I said to myself: “We shouldn’t not that I forgot to have fun, I bothered everyone, had a set built… It has to be worth it,” he says.
“For an actor, “The Weakest Link” is the playground of dreams”
In spring, The Parisianwho attended the filming, published a report where there was talk of an audience that was getting impatient because the recording was dragging on with technical bugs acting as speed bumps. “Computer science in 2024 is not always easy,” jokes Vincent Dedienne. This show was both a first and a last. There were a lot of things that we discovered live. This paper was really not nice because it doesn’t reflect the reality of what happened. Yes, the filming was long but the game was finished in fact, it was me who asked to retake my introductory monologues. »
Looking back, the actor says he loved the experience. “For an actor, it’s paradise, the playground of dreams. Playing Dostoyevsky and Marivaux or presenting “The Weak Link” is a bit the same thing. The common point is writing. I couldn’t see myself doing a show where nothing is written, where it’s just humor. There, it’s a bit like a performance,” he describes, adding that it is also pleasant to be able to improvise repartee.
Even if the result is an audience success, Vincent Dedienne prefers that it remain a one shot. It will therefore probably not come back for another filming session. And then, if he misses the atmosphere of the “Weakest Link”, he always has the possibility of playing the board game version. At home, he has three copies.
