AS a dedicated TV reviewer, I resisted the temptation to celebrate the end of 2022 in a public place drinking and generally out of my head. Instead, I stayed indoors, crouched over the telly.
RTÉ ONE midnight count-down came, we were told, from the banks of the river Liffey. A man with a guitar asked in a very loud voice if the crowd could hear him. The crowd roared “Yes!” Next I know, ‘Party’ Marty Morrissey is asking a young woman with a huge amount of glitter painted around her eyes if she’d made an New Year resolutions. No, she told him, no point, she’d only break them.
Carol from Fáilte Ireland urged Marty and the rest of us to not just celebrate tonight but to go on celebrating the next day.
Three-quarters of the boy band Westlife then came on and sang about somebody who raised them up when they were down and their hearts were weary. Behind them, big screens made them appear tiny. But they got a bit of singalong, then they changed key and counted down 5-4-3 2-1 with the crowd beside the Liffey and yelled “HAPPY NEW YEAR IRELAND! And let’s have hope and joy!”
Over on ITV they were squeezing in as many ads as they could before Big Ben bonged.
Then we got some shots of different places in the world that had already greeted the New Year. A million people were gathered at Sydney in Australia to check out their fireworks. The United Arab Emirate was going for a record celebration, using 400 drones and 15,000 lights. Then we got to Edinburgh, where they were celebrating Hogmanay (Nobody knows what it means, Virginia). The presenter interviewed a couple of Aussies who’d skipped Sydney and come up to check out the Scots and their Hogmanay.
Then they swung away to London’s South Bank where Europe’s largest fireworks display with much whooshing and bangs, interspersed with midnight bongs from Big Ben.
BBC ONE did the same bong/fireworks whoosh/bong/fireworks whoosh etc. Then they had a driving version of Sweet. Caro. LINE! (La, la, la). A massive lighting systems, with the blue and yellow of Ukraine bathed everything. Then lights in the sky showed a royal crown and E2R, with QE2’s voice saying nice things. Then a respectful voice said “Farewell, ma’am. And thank you for everything”. Including, presumably, the PA system, which started booming out ‘LET ME LOVE, LET ME BE LOVED, IT MUST BE LOVE, LOVE, LOVE”
I wonder how many homeless and hungry people felt the whooshing fireworks and blazing lights might have been funnelled to some of the thousands of hungry and homeless people on both sides of the Irish Sea? Just a thought.
Happy New Year.
