Until mid-eighties of the twentieth centurythe courtrooms (apart from those who happened to be there in person) were dark environments to most, which could only be imagined, perhaps helped by a lot of literature and just as much cinema.
Then three things happened. In 1985 the transmission In pretura was born on Rai, which from 1988 would take the name of Un giorno in magistrate. Always in 1985 Forum made its debut, the program we will deal with today, which was the antagonist of the Fininvest house of Un giorno in magistrate.
Third and fundamental push for the mediatization of trials, in 1992, Clean hands. Which certainly caused a sensation for its purely legal implications, but also for the postural and dialectical characteristics of what we could define its frontman, Antonio Di Pietro. It is no coincidence that Un giorno in magistrate has followed the trials of the so-called Tangentopoli for a long time.
Plus the curious combination justice-showto which we will return, is well demonstrated by the fact that both Forum and Un giorno in pretura are still on air today, in 2023.
Forum
We have chosen to deal with the Forum program by making an exception to the rule. If it is true that in this column we are dealing with cult broadcasts from a few decades ago, let us not forget what has just been said, namely that Forum hasn’t closed its doors yet.
But it was certainly in its early years that the show was most successful. Unlike Un giorno in pretura, then, the judicial processes shown by Forum are mostly family, condominium or work disputes, which are of interest not in a passive way, but if anything they trigger a strong identification in the public.
Brief history of Forums
Forum is not born as a standalone program. In 1985 it was in fact included in Buona Domenica, on Canale 5, conducted by Maurizio Costanzo, and only in 1988 did it become a separate broadcast. But the initial seasons they already contain everything that interests us. The female management (entrusted to Catherine Spakand will be only women at the helm of the program), the curious presence of the security guard Paschal African and that, which will deserve a separate paragraph, of the judge Holy Lichers.
The most successful will correspond to the first of the two conductions of Rita Dalla Chiesafrom 1988 to 1997. After that, a decline in ratings will move the program from Canale 5 to Rete 4.
Finally, it should be mentioned, from 1992 to 1995, and from 2004 to 2013, the presence as assistant of Fabrizio Bracconeri (for the less young, the Bruno Sacchi of the boys of the third C).
Justice and entertainment
In explaining what the Forum broadcast was (and is), we find ourselves mentioning the first, important element that made it successful. That is the one already mentioned mixture of justice and entertainment. Because of course, the program lived on the rhythms of television, with skilled presenters, the right side characters and an audience in the hall that was now attentive and now lively.
But from one point of view purely legal, the transmission was impeccable. Each episode aired proposed in fact authentic judgements issued by the Italian State, and over the years (we will also return to this) high-profile judges have alternated.
So the audience at home could enjoy, in one fell swoop, a show, and a sort of… Bignami of jurisprudence.
“But in Forum they are all actors”
It’s time to take responsibility for taking by the horns a sentence that each of us, at least once in our life, has said or heard said: But at Forum they are all actors!
Well, the answer is yes. But this is precisely the winning trick: starting from a real sentence, professional actors manage to give a color and a rhythm that, in all probability, ordinary citizens would not have been able to ensure.
Holy Lichers
For personal reasons, we are particularly fond of Holy Lichersthe first judge to appear at the Forum, where he remained for 24 years, from 1985 to 2009. Who remembers his legendary: “I retire to deliberate”?
Santi Licheri was a former magistrate, former lawyer and Honorary Adjunct President of the Court of Cassation. Tiny figure but with a gaze capable of incineratinghe alternated with theatrical skill moments of absolute rigor and severity, in which he made the veins in the wrists of both the actors and the public (in the hall and at home) tremble, with others in which he left the role of judge and pierced the screen with cultured quotations (often and willingly in Latin) or politely ironic jokes.
The winning formula
Therefore, all of these elements it attracted like honey. He could witness condominium squabbles (hoping perhaps that we would talk about what he had made us argue with the neighbor the day before). Or family disagreements not too different from ours.
Disputes were settled by inflexible but at the same time human judges, the actors were persuasive and the presenters supported every situation well. Thus a curious voyeurism was produced in the spectatorin which it was not clear to what extent we were witnessing a simple show, and how much instead we identified with the disputants.
One thing is certain: if after almost forty years the Forum program is still on the air, the formula was (and is) successful.
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