Published Wednesday, 14 July 2010
When Harvey Met Bob is "hilarious and deeply moving" drama about the Irish singer's collaboration with promoter Harvey Goldsmith to stage the global concert.
Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the event, staged mainly in London and Philadelphia, which saw many of the world's biggest music stars performing.
Domhnall Gleeson - son of Brendan Gleeson, Harry Potter's Mad-Eye Moody - will play former Boomtown Rats star Geldof, while Ian Hart will play Goldsmith.
Filming has already begun in Dublin on the film which will be screened by BBC2 later this year.
It will follow Geldof from the moment he arrives home in 1984 to find his then girlfriend, and later wife, Paula Yates watching Michael Buerk's BBC broadcast from the camps in Eritrea.
Moved by what he saw, he first sprang into action by organising the Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas? and then the following year staged the massive Live Aid gig.
Janice Hadlow, controller of BBC2, said: "To mark the 25th anniversary of Live Aid, BBC2 celebrates with an ambitious single drama which tells the story behind the biggest televised international charity event in history and the two inspiring men that made it happen."
Executive producer Kate Triggs of Great Meadow Productions said: "We were inspired by this story because it has, at its heart, a fantastic relationship that is funny and moving and born out of the real drama of trying to achieve something huge and unprecedented".
"It's a film about two men who are prepared to think the unthinkable and achieve the seemingly impossible."