The writer Javier Cercas and the actor Eduard Fernández visited this Thursday The revolt to present the series Anatomy of a momentbased on the novel by Cercas about the conquest of democracy in Spain. As usual, its presenter, David Broncano, played the bass drum not only at the beginning of the program, but also to welcome his guests, an instrument that fascinated the member of the Royal Spanish Academy, who also cheered along with the audience to the rhythm of the percussion. And it was precisely the comedian who approached the academic to enter the institution as a comedian and presenter: “We also use language. It would be an honor. I would love to be from the RAE and destroy it from within.”
“It is a very serious place,” said the writer, who was visiting this program for the first time, with some irony, also nodding with some sarcasm when Fernández said that he had warned him that it was a place where they would talk a lot about books. “If you want to talk about books, you talk,” answered Broncano, who confessed to Cercas that he had read a couple of his books, among them, Soldiers of Salamis.
But the surprise came when the audience of the La 1 program began to shout “Books, books, books” to applause. “Wait a minute, is this being chanted on public television in prime time to the books?” Broncano asked in surprise. “Again, again. Impressive, something never seen before,” said Cercas, who managed to get the audience to chant the same thing again. This was the reaction to the usual gifts that guests usually bring to the presenter, which on this occasion, in addition to a lectern from the Congress of Deputies that they used in the series and a rosary that Pope Francis gave to the writer, were two of his books: Anatomy of a moment y The madman of God at the end of the worldhis latest work, which he published after being the first journalist to be invited by the Vatican to accompany Pope Francis on a trip to Mongolia without restrictions. “Give us a copy!” added a person from the audience after a brief conversation about their experience writing this book. Cercas couldn’t believe it and the public once again cheered in favor of the books: “But what is this? I want to come here more, every day.”
The series Anatomy of a moment It is based on the book of the same name by Cercas and can be seen on Movistar Plus+ from November 20, a date chosen because it coincides with the anniversary of Francisco Franco’s death. Directed by Alberto Rodríguez and starring Álvaro Morte, Eduard Fernández and Manolo Solo, its chapters relive February 23, 1981, the day of the failed coup d’état carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero. “What good actors in the series and how necessary it is to reconstruct that decisive moment,” Carlos Boyero concluded in his review, which you can read at this link.