“In other words” they are always «The words» of Massimo Gramellini, in bi-weekly format, both in the early evening on Saturday and on Sunday, but on La 7. To summarize the content of the format, we could obviously indulge ourselves with literary notations, such as «Nothing new on the Western (television) front», or «If we want everything to remain as it is, everything must change”, and in the case of Gramellini the title of the program has changed, the network that broadcasts it has changed, but everything – or almost everything – has remained the same.
The editorialist of Corriere della Sera also on La 7 he confirmed the cast that accompanied him on Raitre, bringing the comedian with him Saverio Raimondithe art expert Jacopo Venezianibut above all the prof. Roberto Vecchioni, true added value of the program. The novelty is the column by Alessandra Sardoni, already working for the Mentana news programme, «What year is it?».
While in the Saturday episode Gramellini’s attention focuses on weekly current affairs, in the Sunday slot we talk about memories and notes of life, suspended between past facts and contemporaneity of thought, an exercise that the journalist tackles with his column «The Gramellini’s coffee” in the Corriere and which also manages to place on television in that middle ground in which the gaze is turned backwards to trace the line of experience and comparison with the present.
Anyone who expected that with the changeover of the network there would also be a change of register will obviously have been disappointed, because “In other words”, except for the additions we have mentioned and which fit well into the fabric of the broadcast, is in perfect continuity with the previous television experience on Raitre, in which, without playground noise, food for thought on current issues is offered.
It is the calmness of opinions that reigns supreme, in open contrast to what we usually see on talk TV, a calmness that sees its spokesperson in Roberto Vecchioni.
Vecchioni’s lexical notations, his semantic research that transports words from today to ancient Greek, his ability to bring concepts to life through ancient or classical terms, without modernity being affected, his simplicity in explaining the reason for a phrase often abused in current language adds value to the program and makes it a beloved protagonist.
