eyes of another emerging band, UB40, in A Statistic, A Reminder (1981), a line taken from one of the band’s songs. Six years later, a special edition of the programme was devoted to the Irish rock band U2 and their charismatic front man Bono. Like The Rolling Stones before them, U2 allowed World in Action to film one of their classic concerts in 1987 in Ireland. This footage, shot by the future Hollywood director Paul Greengrass, was shown only once on ITV because of copyright restrictions, although it circulated among fans of the band as a bootleg. A small section of the film was posted on YouTube in 2006. The full documentary was made available on the itv.com website in 2008.
In 1983, Stevie Wonder, at the height of his popularity, gave the programme a musical exclusive when he agreed to let a World in Action crew record him performing an unreleased song, written to help