Xandru Azzopardi speaks of Xarabank, Malta's most popular talk show, like he would of an older sibling, recalling coming to its defence whenever it was derided.
He was born one year after his parents – Peppi Azzopardi and Mandy Micallef Grimaud – launched the programme together with PJ Vassallo Mintoff 23 years ago.
Xarabank started as a university assignment. Sociology lecturer Fr Benny Tonna asked his class to split into groups and document their team dynamics for some weeks.
Since Peppi and PJ, who were sitting at different ends of the lecture hall, did not know anyone, they were grouped together with others in their same situation.
[attach id=932002 size="large" align="left" type="image"]The first Xarabank team: PJ Vassallo Mintoff and Xandru Azzopardi with his parents Mandy Micallef Grimaud and Peppi Azzopardi.[/attach]
The group met at the Msida apartment of Peppi and his wife Mandy to work on the assignment… and this same apartment eventually served as the first office for Xarabank’s team.
It was 1996 and Peppi had decided not to renew the contract of the children’s programme Owkey. He was asked to try something new. Still reeling from an era of political turmoil, violence and activism, Peppi had always dreamt of a talk show where expert guests spoke about their lived experiences.
His newfound friends were onboard with the idea and started working on a TV programme called Aqliblu (change the channel). They were all set and ready, when one day, during a lecture, Peppi slipped PJ a paper with the word Xarabank (bus) written on it.
The talk show as we knew it was born in April of 1997, initially broadcast from a university lecture theatre. Over the following 23 years, riddled with threats and praise in equal measure, there was only one programme that never aired. Now that the programme has been axed from TVM’s primetime slot on Friday, the future of Xarabank is still a bit hazy but there is a strong will to keep going.
Read the full interview with the Xarabank team, and find out why it was called Xarabank, here.