Bobbing down the river of history

Glued to the screen is the only way to describe the way in which I sat last Wednesday night.
It was perhaps the most interesting way I had a spent a Wednesday night in some time and that is not a reflection on my social life but rather a tribute to the way in which this particular programme was made.
When Harvey Met Bob is perhaps the best made-for-television dramas I have seen in recent years. It had all the right ingredients, great acting, great scripting, great photography and great production.
It played on all your emotions as well as all the stereotypes and half-heard anecdotes about the way in which the Live Aid concerts came together and the main players behind it. While most people probably don’t have much of a preconception about the promoter Harvey Goldsmith, it would be very hard to find someone who didn’t have an opinion about Sir Bob.
From the title of “Sir”, to the way he speaks and wears his hair, Geldof has the ability to unite and divide almost simultaneously. He is a character in the true Irish sense of the word and his passion for life and those less fortunate than he, or the ordinary person on the street, seep from every pore. Love him or hate him, there is no denying the work he has done and if this programme did anything, it showed the dogged determination that he has for his causes. The subject of this drama being of course, his first and most historic.
Live Aid was not just another concert to raise money for Africa, it was the first large scale global concert that paved the way for all the other charity gigs and big name endorsements of charitable organisations.
However, the drama is not an homage to Geldof and Goldsmith. Instead, it shows them in a very warts and all manner. Geldof is obnoxious, Goldsmith is frustrated and the poor assistant is very much walked all over by both. This is not a partnering of two like-minded souls. They are different but united by a common idea and perhaps it’s the friction and frustration that drives the friendship and the project. They want to succeed and they will do anything in Geldof’s case and almost anything in Goldsmith’s.
The drama begins with Geldof watching the legendary BBC broadcast by Michael Buerk from feeding camps in Ethopia. This singular broadcast compels Geldof to get the help of some big names to release a charity single, Do They Know It’s Christmas?
On visiting the place where the money was going, however, he realizes that much more money, food and aid are required for these desperate people. It is the scenes of these people and their starving children that urge Geldof on and become the root of his anger and frustration when things are not going completely right.
Even if the drama does nothing for your sense of human achievement or to alleviate the skepticism that many Irish people have of Sir Bob, it should at least illustrate the massive achievement it was, especially since it was, in many ways, the technological dark ages, to stage two concerts and to broadcast those concerts around the globe.
This was not only groundbreaking in terms of charitable donations; it was groundbreaking technologically and musically. These concerts were showcases of the abilities of the BBC and the bands that were involved. The people, who committed to doing the gig, did so without truly realising what they were signing up for and in many ways, they themselves were brave.
It is not easy to put your name to something that may in fact by a complete flop but in many cases, the fact that they were on the bill owed more to the negotiation skills of Goldsmith and Geldof than there desire to do a charitable work.
From beginning to end, the programme was very enjoyable. It featured some rising stars such as Domhnall Gleeson, son of Brendan and some old hands such as Ian Hart.
Directed by Nick Renton and produced by Catherine Magee who also did The Clinic, the production team wove a dramatic story of fear, frustration, anger and resilience interspersed with footage from the real event at Wembly.
The only down point was that I thought that the actor who played McCartney could have been a little more like him but that’s just a minor blemish on an otherwise clean sheet. It can be viewed for the next three weeks on the RTÉ Player.
Ireland’s favourite programme is not what you might think. We may like the American imports and the British comedies but when it comes to the one programme that no one will miss, it has to be Reeling in the Years. The first of a new series set from 2000-2010 started last Sunday and it was incredible. The Ireland of 10 years ago is nearly unrecognisable. Text messaging was a new fad, Bono and The Edge got the freedom of Dublin City and tragedy struck in Abbeylara when gardaí shot dead John Carthy in a siege.
Of course, we were creating 100,000 new jobs a year and Gay Byrne was back on the telly presenting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Westlife were reaching new heights in the charts and McCreevey was slashing taxes.
We were all relieved that the millennium bug never bit but even more shockingly was that Ronan Keating was enjoying quite a successful solo career with the ever-so-annoying and still overplayed hit Life is A Rollercoaster. You get exactly what it says on the tin with Reeling in The Years and we just love it. Check it out every Sunday night.