Baudo, TV, and Cancer: Here's His Visionary Legacy

"I remember his big hands, a very affectionate and physical man who hugged you whenever he met you. He did it with everyone, with his friend Sandra Mondaini, with the sound engineer, with me, a young Airc employee. His gentle attention to relationships was authentically independent of the social position of the person in front of him. This is one of the characteristics I later wanted to see in all the Airc Foundation ambassadors ." Remembering Pippo Baudo is Nadia Bordoli, the communications manager for the Airc Foundation , who identifies and engages Airc ambassadors and has followed the precious and affectionate relationship between Baudo and Airc from the beginning, building the project of a new television format with the presenter that would talk about cancer research . Baudo's grace and professionalism as a presenter have marked sixty years of Italian television, but perhaps not everyone is aware of his great sensitivity and flair for communicating about cancer, a disease that has only recently begun to be discussed freely.

His polite care for relationships was authentically independent of the social position of the person in front of him.

Nadia Bordoli

It was 1995, Baudo had recently been appointed artistic director of RAI and was recovering from his own experience with [thyroid] cancer. He helped us build a structured relationship with RAI by creating “ Stories under the Microscope ,” an alternative format to the Telethon marathon. It didn't disrupt the schedule, but rather provided for widespread dissemination of our content across programs already on the air . Content was presented according to the editorial style, audience, and language of each individual program. Personal and professional stories of researchers, doctors, volunteers, and above all, those of men and women who overcame the disease. Each story was thus tailored specifically and told through the lens of the AIRC microscope , hence the name “Stories under the Microscope.” A simple but highly effective format, recalls Bordoli. After three years of " Stories under the Microscope ," "which we built with Pippo Baudo and the support of then-president Letizia Moratti, we moved forward. The number of days has increased, arriving at the current week of Research Days, which we continue to organize with Rai—this year marks the thirtieth anniversary—continuing in the wake of Pippo Baudo's visionary legacy . As someone who was cured of cancer and as a communicator and entertainer, he understood even then that the times required evolving the grammar of cancer narratives , removing that aura of fear and unspokenness, informing the public and helping them form their own awareness."

As a person who has been cured of cancer and as a communicator and entertainer, he had already understood then that the times required evolving the grammar of cancer narration.

Nadia Bordoli

On the show, Pippo Baudo always wanted Sandra Mondaini, his great friend (as well as Umberto Veronesi's) and the true driving force behind this new sensibility . " She had been a staunch AIRC spokesperson for decades . Ever since Raimondo fell ill, her mission was to make people understand that cancer is a democratic disease, that it can strike anyone, that we shouldn't be afraid of it but should talk about it. She was effective and credible." In 2008, we considered pairing Sandra with a spokesperson, who by now preferred to appear less frequently. Pippo Baudo once again proved himself a skilled entertainer: "I was backstage at Domenica In, the November 2nd episode. The passing of the baton from Sandra to Antonella Clerici was to be celebrated on television; at the last minute, it seemed that the former was having second thoughts. Baudo knew how to manage the live broadcast and pair two great women at two very different stages of their careers."

On that occasion, addressing viewers, he used these words to urge them to participate in the AIRC fundraiser: "What can you, indeed, what must you do as citizens of this country?" The excerpt of the broadcast is available here:

He was always very generous in his dedication to Airc. Bordoli recalls the last interview Pippo Baudo gave: "He no longer wanted to be seen on television and traveled little. However, he always did what he could for us. His last appearance came thanks to his great friend, director Michele Guardi, the only one who managed to convince him to give a truly exceptional interview, which in today's television times would be considered very long, telling his personal story , recalling what it meant in the 1970s to be ill with cancer, even as a showbiz personality, but always with that kindness that made him feel close to the people who listened to him at home, who perhaps weren't as fortunate as he was to know the doctors and the treatment options available."

His legacy is already underway. " Baudo was the quintessential expression of kindness, gentleness, and the ability to make everyone feel at ease, and I see all of this in the two ambassadors who have carried on the legacy of Mondaini and Baudo, Antonella Clerici and Carlo Conti," Bondoli concludes. "Conti has the courage to suspend the entertainment during the peak of his show, Tale e Quale, at midnight, and to always bring a researcher and a cancer survivor on stage for a brief but vital message that he manages to convey to the audience at home, punctuating the right tempos, just as Pippo Baudo did, to allow the emotions to flow even from those who aren't professional entertainers like a researcher."

Photo by Airc Foundation