In the late 70s and early 80s, at home, on Fridays, Balbín was seen on TVE on the first channel, not on UHF. It was a program called La Clave with a format that was as simple as it was successful: a debate with guests and the broadcast of a film with an apparent relation to the topic to be discussed. A short introduction with greetings to the guests gave way to the film and then a talk that lasted until dawn (as I remember it). All the debates that have taken place on television since then have been copies of La Clave but with lizard dresses.
José Luis Balbín was a good-looking presenter who smoked a pipe on set, always with his legs open and whom I remember in a good mood. Each program had a theme and here are some of those debated in those post-Franco years, the beginning of democracy and transition:
Euthanasia (10/02/1979), The debate of officials (23/12/1978), Nationalities (25/11/1978), Coto Doñana (4/11/1978), Violation of human rights (28/10/1978) ), The future of television (7/10/1978), The Constitution (30/09/1978), The exiles (16/09/1978), Tourism (5/08/1978), Unemployment (17 /06/1978), A future without books (22/04/1978), Marginalized minorities (18/03/1978), Changes in the form of the family (3/05/1980), Alternative sources of energy (22/ 10/1977), Nuclear Danger (02/06/1979), A Contaminated World (27/08/1977), Miscarriages of Justice (25/02/1978), Paying for the Party: Public Subsidies (26/04/ 1985), Homosexuals (29/ 07/1983), Do crazy people exist? (09/12/1978) Madrid, Federal District (09/07/1985), Epidemics (26/06/1981), Primo de Rivera (issued, of course, on 20N of 1981).
I ask the content director of TVE to allow me to present the remake of La Clave. Don’t worry, the program will start exactly as it did then: all the socialites standing up and in a circle chatting amicably while the dark soundtrack of the program plays. I will invite them to sit down like Balbín did and I will greet with a smiling good night looking at the camera. And best of all, the topics will be the same (almost) fifty years later. And if necessary we will issue it in black and white.
