Oh Richard, Richard, Richard. We'd rather you were penning 'Blackadder 13' or animating the rubbery faces of Cameron et al in a revived 'Spitting Image'. It's not that malaria isn't a worthy topic, or that we've anything against you, the BBC, Ms Blethyn, Ms Swank or the rest of the cast and crew, it's just... most dramas say something, or try to, but there's a difference between that and Telegraphing a Worthy Message by way of a frankly cliched and sentimental script. We haven't spontaneously "bleughed" at a drama like this since - well, since 'Call the Midwife' probably, but before that we must have been in our early teens.
And on top of the nausea, there was the wholly unlikely scenario of 'nice, middle-class ladies' embarking on a sort of genteel version of Erin Brokovich's campaign to change things from the top, thanks to Swank's well-connected (James Woods!) dad.
So what are we ordinary mortals to do? Follow the girls and throw it all up to parade with placards at Westminster? Or follow them to Africa, adding to the general shortages but making ourselves feel better? Maybe just re-allocate our dwindling pension pots to a medical charity? Well, we will if Mr Curtis and co. will. Yes? No?
Statistics were thrown at us that are meant to shock: malaria kills more people a year than died in various wars combined etc. Well here are more: malaria, along with tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, receives more funding than the group of infections known as the Neglected Tropical Diseases, but the latter group affects as many people in developing countries as malaria. Like malaria, many of them could be prevented and/or cured, and like malaria, they may not always kill but severely maim and injure the afflicted. Cue Bill Gates and various other charities who aim to eradicate/exterminate/generally end these horrors - hurrah! And they're not making preachy dramas to make their point - double hurrah!
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