Neil Sandilands back on SA tellie, exploring the vastness of the Namib

Acclaimed actor and musician, Neil Sandilands (46) has been keeping himself busy with impressive international projects for the past few years, including the likes of the award-winning Netflix series, Sweet Tooth, News of the World and The Flash to name a few.

But, it’s the local series, Die Groot Niks (The Big Nothing) and his presentation of it that has South Africans excited.

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The news of him presenting the new kykNET series, Die Groot Niks is refreshing and has many curiously counting the days until the first episode. It will be Sandilands’ first appearance on kykNET in over ten years.

Kicking off on 12 February, the series revolves around the natural beauty of the vast Namib desert, as well as its uniqueness, its people, and tales seldom told, capturing the constant struggle between man and nature, with Sandilands guiding the storyline in a mostly unscripted and therefore very interesting direction.

“This jewel of a progamme happened at the right time of my life,” says Sandilands, who is also known for his roles in local productions like Konings, Orion, Jakkalsdans and Die ballade van Robbie de Wee.

“When Waldo and Hannes contacted me at the beginning of 2021 with the concept and the title of the series, it was a very easy yes from me.”

Neil Sandilands has been “hop-stepping between South Africa, Nieu-Zeeland, the States (Los Angeles) and Mexico since February 2020” and returned to the States only a few weeks ago.

He says as a creative, he always sees it as his responsibility to get creativity out there and into the world as quickly as possible.

“The quicker you embody your ideas and send it out into the world, the quicker the creativity comes in again.”

Hannes Visser and Waldo van der Waal – known for the popular motoring show, La’t Wiel are the brains behind Die Groot Niks, and veteran television presenter and journalist, Ruda Landman is responsible for the voice overs in the series.

Hannes and Waldo approached Neil Sandilands with the idea of the series and its title left space for imagination and improvisation, which Sandilands himself was able to bring to the series in abundance. He says that the title also “lent itself to metaphysics and perhaps a contemplative approach to what it is to be human.”

The production team met each other in Upington for the first time, enroute to Lüderitz to film the series.

Sandilands says that evidently, there had to be some form of trust between the people in the team who were on a mission to create something magical in the middle of nowhere.

He says he is not necessarily a motor enthusiast, like the producers, but that his unique and contrasting approach to the programme “helped the show tremendously” during the creation process.

He says that he suspects that if the exclusive La’t Wiel viewer expects something similar, they might be disappointed as Die Groot Niks has a different approach.

Neil Sandilands says with the travels between countries, things went so fast that he forgot some of his clothes in his drawer in Cape Town.

“I literally had one short, a jean and a kilt with me.”

Hence, he worked with what he had during the filming of the series, adding a unique and interesting flavour to Die Groot Niks.

He says people can expect an element of travelling through his experience with Die Groot Niks.

“I think they can be excited about the visual elements,” says Sandilands, who refers to himself as the celeb-schmeb-dude of the show.

Volker Jahnke (also known as the desert jackal) also played a huge role when it comes to the information provided in the series and Sandilands says the programme is filled with very interesting and “super fascinating” information.

“I get a kick out of those kinds of things.”

Neil Sandilands’ three favourite moments from ‘Die Groot Niks’

1. The Petrified Dunes. Neil Sandilands says if you don’t know what to look for, you might miss it, but with Volker knowing the area so well, he took them there. These dunes started petrifying and crystalising 30 million years ago, creating layer upon layer. For Sandilands, sitting on a dune that formed so long ago, was a majestic moment in which he just once again realised how inconsequential we as humans are. “That was a wild and wonderful little moment,” he says.
2. Riaan Jacobs. Scientist Riaan lives on Mercury Island, all by his lonesome self. The island is 2.5km out on sea, about 150km from Lüderitz. He collects data about fish populations, penguins and weather patterns and he has been doing that for 26 years. The conversations Sandilands had with Riaan – the shared knowledge – was something special.
3. The Yensenobotrya. This succulent, which Sandilands says looks like baby toes, is native to 200m² and only there. Nowhere else on the planet. (This is close to where the Otavi steam ship has been guarded by seals since 1945).

Die Groot Niks’ first episode takes a look at man’s desire to exploit nature’s riches and how Mother Nature does everything in her power to protect herself.

The second episode looks at mining that took place 90 years ago and the Otavi – a steamer that ran aground in Spencer Bay in 1945 – is the focus of the third episode.

Neil Sandilands says: “It is a gift and privilege to be involved with the creation of an atomic ensemble effort like Die Groot Niks. We’re a small team with super combustive energy. Add to it the alien landscape of the Namib, the viewer may be in for an unexpected knockout.”