"It turns out it was surprisingly apt when the cast of Holby City chose to do Hung Up for their Children In Need slot last year - listening to Madonna doing her song tonight, it really did sound like the sort of song a junior doctor who played in a covers band for fun might put together for a medical revue. Something that people would hear and say "that's good... for a junior doctor."But leave Kate alone. I've woken up with her many a morning and I've not seen a reporter/presenter who can cover the Oscars and the war in Iraq with such equal intelligence and precision. Obviously I'm in love.
So yes, I watched Live Earth although stuck with the interactive channels for most of the day, only joining the rest of the kingdom when it became apparent that they were beginning to repeat themselves and not including anything from Wembley. Shakira was excellent, as was, Toni Collette who can really rock out (did say that out loud?). The Pussycat Dolls had the Queen moment (I was checking ebay for the album even before the set ended) and although I didn't think Madonna was that bad she didn't do Ray of Light any favours.
On the whole though, the BBCs coverage seemed much fairer and balanced than Live Eight, presenting the promotional films whilst at the same time questioning whether the concerts will actually do any good. I was impressed though with the way they purposefully asked the question repeatedly about scientific consensus and repeatedly underlined that the disagreement isn't about whether the planet is heating up any more and whether it was down to everything we've been up to since the industrial revolution but rather the rate at which it's happening and how far into the future the tipping point is and when we're actually so fucked there's nothing much we or our kids can do about it (see I too, like Phil Collins, can swear).
About the only criticism I can give is how off message some of the performers were; it strikes me that given the occasion some of them could have been given a few more suggestions in relation to the information they needed to put across. The nadir was the usually brilliant KT Tunstall in New York who told the crowd and the people at home that they should unplug their mobile phones and eat soil (although she could have been a bit disgruntled after Kevin Bacon told the crowd the half-Irish Edinburgh born singer was from England). Its easy to understand that you can stop war by not fighting with one another (and perhaps follow Marvin Gaye's advice to Get It On) and you can beat hunger by feeding people. But global warming has thousands of related causes and thousands of related solutions which makes it really difficult to fit into a sound bite.
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