And the winner is…

May 9, 2010, No comments

Britain might not yet have a winner from its recent beauty contest, er sorry election, but Switzerland does. And his name is Jan Bühlmann from Buchrain in Canton Luzern. The new Mister Schweiz is another real Swiss man from the heart of the country, just like last year. Macedonian-born, but naturalised Swiss, Goran Cvetkov only managed fourth, which was better than either of the Italian speakers. Despite both reaching the last eight, the men from Ticino went away empty-handed yet again – Ticino has never won Mister Schweiz.

Last night’s marathon show had a James Bond theme, playing up on the Swiss connection with 007: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was partly set in Bern and on Schilthorn in the Bernese Oberland, Omega is the official James Bond watch, Ian Fleming lived here for two years, and Marc Foster directed Quantum of Solace. Oh, and of course the original Bond girl, Honey Ryder in Dr No, was played by Ursula Andress from Ostermundigen (near Bern). The final four candidates even got to re-enact Daniel Craig’s show-stealing moment by emerging from the sea wearing those blue trunks. Unlike on the big screen, though, the camera stayed firmly above the waistband; perhaps the water was very cold that day?

For his two questions, Jan didn’t talk about world peace but about how much truth matters, except when white lies are necessary. Typical male. In case you’re wondering, he’s 22 years old, 1.92 metres tall, weighs 91 kilos, is a Leo, and plays the piano. That’s the kind of info they give you to fill in the moments when the men are strutting around trying not to look like lost sheep. You can see Jan winning here. For the last round, he wore green socks with his regulation grey suit and brown shoes. I’m convinced he only won because of that. A large sympathy vote as everyone clearly knew one of the prizes was  5,000-francs worth of socks; he needed them more than the other 15 candidates.