The great actress is gone, the ye-ye girl, our Saint Teresa, but also the great showwoman who never renounced television. There was only one “mistake” in her career on television, the only one that she herself acknowledged: having rejected the leading role in Farmacia de Guardia. A mistake in more than 60 years of career that demonstrates the love and passion that Concha Velasco not only showed for theater and cinema but also for the small screen.
Concha Velasco leaves behind an impressive career in the world of entertainment, seven decades during which she went from Concepción Velasco Varona to Conchita Velasco to Concha Velasco until she ended up with Doña Concha, one of the most popular, prolific and beloved faces on the scene. , cinema and television throughout its history.
On television he debuted in 1960 with Studio 1 of TVE, where he left his mark on The Lady of the Dawn, The Alondra, Don Juan Tenorio, Una Muchachita de Valladolid or The Witches of Salem.
Her first major television series was Teresa of Jesús, released in 1984. A television adaptation of the saint’s life that earned her the Antena de Oro, the Fotogramas de Plata and the TP de Oro for best actress for her performance. . Directed by Josefina Molina, Teresa de Jesús, it was one of her most brilliant works.
After that series, Concha Velasco became one of the great television presenters. The little fiction came back to life with other series such as Yo, una mujer, an Antena 3 series from the 90s that did not have the success that Concha Velasco’s interpretation deserved. Then came The Golden Girls, Gran Hotel or Herederos. On television, although she said yes to many highly successful projects, she also had to say no or decided to say no to others. Of all those refusals for different reasons, the one that she herself recognized as her only “mistake” was Pharmacy on call.
In the book that was published about the series in the early 90s, Antonio Mercero himself, creator of Farmacia de Guardia, explained that he proposed the role to Concha Cuetos, who was finally the protagonist, but also to Carmen Maura, to Concha Velasco and Esperanza Roy, and the three of them said no. When the director died, Concha Velasco declared in an interview in Diez Minutos how she regretted her decision at that time: “My only mistake was not working at Farmacia de Guardia, with Antonio Mercero, because I had a contract at Antena 3. I have known very well what what I had to do at every moment and now I know it too.
According to her, the reason why she rejected the role was more a matter of appearance and gallantry than anything else, since it didn’t seem like a good idea for her to be on camera all the time dressed in a white coat and constantly be behind the counter. from the pharmacy.
The woman who turned what she touched into success, the artist who broke molds at every step, was first a dancer and singer before becoming a film, theater and television actress, facets to which she also added those of presenter and stage producer.
In 1998, Antena 3 premiered Compañeros, a family series set at the Azcona School that became one of the great television fictions. Concha Velasco played Charo, the literature teacher and wife of Tomás (Manolo Zarzo), director of Azcona. Despite being an ensemble series with many plots and many characters in the first season, the marriage of Charo and Tomás had a lot of weight. Concha herself decided not to continue in the series in the second season, and that also caused the departure of Zarzo and Antonio Zabálburu, her son in fiction.
He presented Viva the show on television, Surprise, Surprise! or Neighborhood Cinema, which she hosted between 2011 and 2020. Her great work as a presenter came in 1999, when she took over from Isabel Gemio at the helm of ¡Sorpresa, Surprise! In fact, it was with her as a presenter that one of the great hoaxes on television took place: the one about the dog, the jam and Ricky Martín. Everyone said that she had seen some images of a young woman in her room, with her dog and a jar of jam while the singer was hiding in the closet to surprise her. Everyone claims that they had been broadcast on the Antena 3 program, something completely false. Even so, Concha Velasco had to bite the bullet and go on screen denying that big hoax.
“We have been victims of a hoax. They have attacked us in a kind of collective madness. An attack in which they spoke of something that never happened and of protagonists who have never existed. It’s all a lie,” Concha said live.
In 2011 he took over Cine de Barrio, the legendary La 1 program. He took over from Carmen Sevilla and gave it, in 2020, to Alaska. It was one of his greatest successes because it united two of her great passions, television and cinema.
It was her great performing ability, which she did not hesitate to demonstrate, that made her a television face that was most loved by the public. She presented, but she interpreted, sang, danced, whatever it took so that the television entertainment show never faded. The same closeness with which she tied the audience in a play or in a film she used on television, connecting in an impressive way with the spectators.
Concha did everything on television, and almost everything well, although there were programs and series in which the audience data did not support her. They were the least, because everything Concha Velasco did on television turned into gold.
