Worth Watching: "Band Aid," 40 Years On

Now on a Tuesday.

Hello,

Welcome to Worth Watching.

I’m going to start experimenting by sending this newsletter on a Tuesday, as we’re more likely to be watching TV during the week than at the weekend.

Let me know your thoughts on this by responding to this email.

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BUT FIRST, GREGG WALLACE…

The BBC has yet to decide whether to air a series of MasterChef starring Gregg Wallace (filmed prior to the allegations and subsequent investigation) will ever air.

Reality shows have a history of editing out contestants if an allegation about their behaviour has taken place. Presenters are a lot harder, perhaps impossible, especially in MasterChef where one of the presenters is also one of the show’s judges.

If you do broadcast the series, then there’s the issue of where to air it. Viewpoint, a drama starring Noel Clarke, was pulled from linear broadcast by ITV in 2021 after allegations were made against Noel, but the series was uploaded onto the ITV Hub for a short time so that viewers can watch the ending (ITV Hub – a fate worse than…)

MasterChef pulled its Christmas specials featuring Gregg after allegations emerged, so how can it justify airing a full series after 45 claims against him are upheld?

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ELSEWHERE…

To mark the 40th anniversary of Live Aid, BBC Two broadcast seven hours of the fundraising concert on Saturday night. A highlight was seeing a disclaimer throughout asking viewers not to donate to the telethon that took place 40 years ago.

At a time when broadcasters are tightening their belts, it makes me wonder what other events can be re-aired for nostalgic purposes. BBC Parliament have a tradition in airing old election broadcasts for political nerds. Live Aid trended on social media on Saturday night, as viewers shared their memories of watching it first time round.

I can’t confirm, but I bet that Live Aid 40 was relatively straightforward to air now because the musicians who appeared did not perform for a fee back then, so wouldn’t expect royalties now.

The main challenge would be rights, copyright and repeat fees. Oh, and the fact that a lot of older broadcasts are already available to watch on YouTube anyway.

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SHOW OF THE WEEK

Live Aid at 40: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Took on the World (BBC iPlayer) – A three-part documentary looking at the 1985 benefit concert for Ethiopia and how it was all put together, along with the Live 8 poverty campaign, which took place 30 years later.

The strength of the documentary is that it is not entirely fawning. As well as celebrating the campaign’s achievements, it also hones in on the problematic aspects of the campaign, such as some of the lyrics of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ were seen to be disrespectful because Ethiopia is one of the oldest Christian countries on Earth. It also looks at allegations of white saviourism, and features regrets from organisers about the lack of diversity in the performers at both Live Aid and Live 8.

There are many small details in this documentary I admired too, such as that Bob Geldof had announced The Who were due to reunite for Live Aid, which simply wasn’t true. For TV geeks, there’s a lot in this doc about how they were able to pull off the biggest technical broadcast of all time at that point. Also, against what you might think, Bob Geldof never actually said the words “give us your fucking money.”

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