The first RTP continuity announcer, Maria Helena Varela Santos, died today, aged 86, from a prolonged illness, her daughter told Lusa.
Maria Helena Varela Santos made her debut on RTP in 1956, and opened the official broadcasts of her first channel, on March 7, 1957, as recalled by the story published on public television, on the Internet.
In an interview with Antena 1, in 2017, in the 60 years of RTP, Maria Helena Varela Santos recalled that date, when, at 21:30, she greeted the country with a “good night, dear spectators”.
At the time, to present a program, I had to know it completely, “I had to know it by heart”.
“This was us [antigos] Lumiar studios. There was a very large patio, a terrace, and I would go there, walk, walk from side to side, to decorate the paper, to see if I could have it all glued to my memory ”, he recalled.
The face of Maria Helena Varela Santos marked the first years of television in Portugal.
He did the continuity voiceover, presented the inaugural song festival in 1964, contests like “Dize Tu, Direi Eu!”, And entered productions like “The Thief of Those Who Speak”, always playing his own role, that of professional of RTP.
“I never stopped being nervous, never. Until the last day I never stopped being nervous in front of the cameras ”, she confessed to Antena 1, in 2017.
In more recent years, Maria Helena Varela Santos returned as a guest to programs such as “Unforgettable”, “Parque Maior” and “Return to the Past”.
Daughter of the founder of Rádio Ribatejo, captain Jaime Varela dos Santos, Maria Helena was married to the also presenter of RTP José Fialho Gouveia (1935-2004).
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