TV Weekly: From Queen Camilla to behind the scenes of 1984 Band Aid

Telly picks for the coming week…

Forty years ago, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure gathered together some of the biggest popstars in the UK and Ireland to form the charity supergroup, Band Aid, who would record and release the now legendary song, Do They Know It’s Christmas?, in aid of the 1983-1985 famine in Ethiopia.

The song, released in December 1984, became an instant Number 1 in the UK and retained the chart top spot over that Christmas and beyond. The song won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video and was the fastest selling single of all time for over a decade.

The recording of Do They Know It’s Christmas? took place over the course of one day, Sunday 25th November 1984, at SARM Studios in Notting Hill, and was filmed by director Nigel Dick. Whilst some of the footage was used for the iconic music video, much of what was recorded has remained unseen for four decades and some of it never seen before… until now.

The Making of Do They Know It’s Christmas? unearths 75 minutes of that original footage, shot on 16mm film and newly restored and digitised.

It features rare and unseen moments in which stars, including Bananarama, Bono, Boy George, Duran Duran, George Michael, Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17, Paul Young, Phil Collins, Spandau Ballet, Sting and more, rehearsed and recorded their parts and interacted with each other during that 24 hours which would make musical history.

The film also includes interviews which were shot on the day with Bono, Gary Kemp, George Michael, John Taylor, Simon Le Bon and Trevor Horn, plus an appearance from Nigel Planer, who played Neil in the BBC TV series, The Young Ones.

BBC Four, Friday at 9pm

It was one of the bloodiest, most vicious eras of history; the birth of the Roman Empire. Ultimate power of life and death over millions of people rested in the hands of one man… or did it? Behind the scenes, pulling the strings, were a line of cunning, ruthless women. These dangerous wives and mistresses were the real power behind the throne.

Narrator Dame Sian Phillips returns to the role that chilled the nation’s blood in “I Claudius”, as the calculating cold-blooded empress Livia Drusilla. Witness how she rose to become the most powerful woman in the world, for the first-time enabling women to change the course of western civilisation. But Livia’s dynasty is built on ruthless betrayal, incest and bloodshed… Game of Thrones, eat your heart out.

The first Empress of Rome, the ruthless Livia Drusilla, carves a corpse-strewn path to putting her own son on the emperor’s throne. But her golden dynasty is to descend into an age of terror and depravity.

Livia’s story begins with the brutal assassination of the Roman Republic’s most powerful general, Julius Caesar. The chaos and bloody power grabs that follow even take down Egypt’s legendary queen Cleopatra, but the Posh and Becks of the Roman Republic, Augustus and Livia, seize their moment. Through a ruthless combination of gladiatorial violence, sexual alliances and cold-blooded murder, they hoodwink the world’s most powerful democracy into nominating Augustus as a single autocratic leader – the first Emperor of Rome.

Augustus ushers in a golden age of peace and prosperity, whilst behind the scenes, Livia carves out a role for Rome’s elite women to become the real architects of empire. Her husband now has ultimate control of Rome, so he can name whichever male heir he likes to succeed him. Livia sees her chance to put her own son from a previous marriage onto the throne. As long as Augustus has no surviving grandsons…

Augustus’ wanton daughter Julia is his last hope of providing an heir, but one by one, her husbands and sons meet a mysteriously early death. There’s poison in the air, and fingers point to Livia. She finally eliminates Julia by scandalising Rome with her reputation for drunken affairs, and Livia persuades Augustus to adopt her son from a previous marriage, Tiberius, as sole heir.

Now only Augustus himself stands in the way of Tiberius becoming emperor, and he is mysteriously killed by poisoned figs. Could Livia have assassinated her own husband of 50 years? Her dynasty is now certainly secured, but Tiberius is about to drag her golden legacy into a reign of paranoid terror.

Channel 5, tonight (Saturday Nov 23) at 9.25pm

The inside story on how Queen Camilla transformed her image from that of a hated royal mistress to a much-loved monarch.

Friends, allies and journalists reveal Camilla’s route from 1960s debutante, through the personal scandals of the 90s, to the triumph of the coronation, revealing what her ascendency means for the monarchy and examining claims that her transformation destroyed her relationship with her stepson Prince Harry.

Friends of Camilla reveal the pain and hardship that came with being Prince Charles’ mistress. Critics close to the royal circle claim that Queen Camilla and Buckingham Palace cynically pursued a press strategy based on leaking private information about other royals to the tabloids. In his recent autobiography, Prince Harry accused Camilla of sacrificing him to a vicious PR campaign to clean up her own image.

The Prince is said to have called the queen his ‘wicked stepmother’, and at other points claimed her connections with certain members of the press makes her ‘dangerous’. This revealing film questions whether these shocking accusations could possibly be true

Channel 4, Sunday, 9pm

Matlock stars Emmy and Academy Award winner Kathy Bates as Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a brilliant septuagenarian who achieved success in her younger years and decides to rejoin the work force at a prestigious law firm where she uses her unassuming demeanor and wily tactics to win cases.

Matty is assigned to Olympia (Skye P. Marshall), a senior attorney and key rainmaker with a thirst for justice, while Olympia’s ex-husband, Julian (Jason Ritter), the son of the head of the firm, is intrigued by Matty and her clever skills.

As Matty endeavors to establish herself in her new high-stakes world, she works alongside the firm’s younger associates – the charismatic Billy (David Del Rio) and the uber ambitious Sarah (Leah Lewis).

This current production is inspired by the classic television series of the same name

SKY Witness, Tuesday, 9pm

More than 200 million holidaymakers fly in and out of the UK every year, but these flights produce greenhouse gases, which are warming the planet. The industry has a plan it claims will cut emissions and help reach its net zero targets, but is it realistic and what does it all mean for holidaymakers?

The BBC’s Climate Editor, Justin Rowlatt, looks at whether the UK is on track to meet its ‘Jet Zero’ targets by 2050, and investigates if the plans will really revolutionise air travel and what this means for the price of our flights.

Presenter Michelle Ackerley asks if it is possible to make an environmentally responsible decision on a budget. She talks to aviation bosses at Gatwick Airport to see how decisions made about the future of sustainable air travel could affect holidaymakers.

Meanwhile, science reporter Fran Scott investigates if new technology could be the answer, and looks how the next generation of engines could be made more efficient.

BBC One, Thursday, 9pm