THERE is only one name that is synonymous with entertainment on etv: Nicky Greenwall.
Yes, some readers may have guessed that the “Friday Night is Action Night” voice is most synonymous, but no one knows his name, so he doesn’t count.
Nicky Greenwall has been the woman in front of and behind Showbiz Report, The Close Up and Screentime With Nicky Greenwall.
In November she will, through her production company Greenwall Productions, bring a show called The Big Picture to etv.
“The Big Picture is a movie preview show,” she told me on the evening that she’d announced the new show and officially opened the doors to Greenwall Productions’ headquarters in Cape Town, which is next door to 20 Model Management, the agency owned by Greenwall’s partner, Robin Fryer.
“We’re not re-inventing the wheel here. The Big Picture is about up-and-coming movies and we’ll show footage from, like, a Los Angeles or Paris premiere of a film.”
When I sat down with a bubbly Greenwall, she was just weeks away from giving birth to her second child, Riley, who is two-year-old Georgina’s baby brother.
But, she mentioned, when it comes to her career, “The Close Up is our baby”.
The third season of The Close Up kicked off this Tuesday on e.tv and you can expect to witness celebrities like Bonang Matheba, Joelle Kayembe and Pam Andrews letting us in on what has gone into making them who they are.
“It sounds like I’m talking sh*t,” Greenwall beams, “but The Close Up really is our baby. It’s about being real.
“It’s still glossy and glamorous but it’s about real human stories. This season, there are lots of women whom I interviewed who have kids and it’s given me perspective. We all want the same things.
“The celebrities are the hook of the show but it’s not about celebrities, it’s about the human stories and that’s what we wanted to show because I was sick of telling a certain kind of story.
“If I have to say Brangelina one more time…” she exclaims and then bursts into laughter.
Greenwall says The Big Picture came about partly because “I wanted to be involved in lots of different aspects of entertainment and lots of music shows were already doing a good job.
“I used to be exposed to movies a lot when I was doing Showbiz Report but since the show’s been off, now movies come on and I’m like ‘when did this happen?
I’m so out of the loop!’ There’s also so much crap out there!
“So this is the kind of show that will be useful to regular people. It’s not a review show but a preview show so that you get to make up your own mind.”
I ask her why she made up her mind to predominantly wear black whenever she is on the small screen and Greenwall smiles.
“If I was a man, I’d only ever wear suits on shows. With women, there are just too many things that people find to comment on.
“When I was doing Showbiz Report, a lot of the comments would be stuff like ‘I like your red dress’ and I wanted people to comment on what was going on on the show.
“It’s not ‘my’ show. I’m just the frame and all of these people that I interview and interact with are the picture.”
So look out for the exhibitions that Nicky Greenwall brings to e.tv now and in the near future.
• The third season of The Close Up is on e.tv every Tuesday at 9.30pm. The Big Picture will air in November and Screentime with Nicky Greenwall makes a comeback early next year, both on e.tv.