Singing Ireland into being

In recent years there’s been a fashion for arts documentaries presented by celebs rather than boring old experts — presumably on the grounds that knowledge and insight are no match for vague enthusiasm and a touch of showbiz glamour. (In a particularly gruesome episode of ITV’s Perspectives, Pop Idol winner Will Young established his credentials for discussing the life and works of René Magritte with the words, ‘I’ve been collecting bowler hats for 12 years now.’) Even so, one channel you might have expected to hold out against such frivolity is BBC4, the natural home of resolutely untelegenic academics telling us stuff they really know about.

But then on Sunday came Bob Geldof on W.B. Yeats: A Fanatic Heart, a title that may well have filled the channel’s hardcore fans with dismay. Fortunately, it soon turned out that they needn’t have worried — because this was a hugely engaging, informative and thoughtful piece of television.