We're wrong to mock Do They Know It’s Christmas?

‘I hope we passed the audition,’ said an alarmingly youthful Bob Geldof at one point in The Making of Do They Know It’s Christmas? He was, of course, quoting John Lennon from the 1969 Beatles rooftop concert: an appropriate reference in the circumstances – because this documentary was a kind of Get Back for the Smash Hits generation. Like a far shorter version of Peter Jackson’s film of the Beatles at work, it mixed footage we’d seen before with stuff locked away in the vaults for decades. It was also equally unafraid of longueurs, equally determined to accentuate the positive and equally likely to warm the flintiest of hearts.

I imagined I’d do my share of mocking – but watching it, all that felt mean-spirited

The setting was a still-shabby Notting Hill on Sunday 25 November 1984, where Geldof and Midge Ure began the day wondering if any of the pop stars they’d invited to make a charity record for Ethiopia would show up. Gradually, a series of bouffant and blond-highlighted hairdos were seen making their way to the recording studio. On arrival, they got down to the serious business of comparing hangovers, with the winner probably Spandau Ballet’s leather-trousered Tony Hadley who’d had two hours’ sleep and was making a pained attempt to remember all the words he’d have to sing – namely ‘the bitter sting of tears’.

From the annoyingly intrusive perspective of 2024, you couldn’t help noticing how white and male almost all of these people were. Even so, there was some variety – or, if you prefer, wild and endearing randomness – as Status Quo bumped into Sting, Paul Weller strode around with an unexpectedly patrician walking cane and Phil Collins observed his garish confrères while wearing a tank top and slacks.