Estate-scapades

SABC3’s new weekday telenovela The Estate is fancy and flashy on the outside thanks to the high walls and slick property development that has gone on, but there’s drama behind the fancy gates when you drive into the well-to-do estate setting. “Viewers get to see very quickly just how the characters have built-up façades that they’re hiding behind,” explains Jacques Blignaut, who played Vince Meintjies in Afrikaans soap 7de Laan (2000-now, see p28) for the past 15 years before leaving the show early in March this year. His character Martin van Wyk, for example, puts on a brave face when he’s out working as a general practitioner. But when he goes home at night, Martin’s life is far from the perfect image that he portrays. “These people (the characters) have their flaws. They have their positives,