Alive, Alive-O

A difficult year came to a sour end with the hammer-blow news, vouchsafed by my well-informed son-in-law, that Johnny does not sing all his songs at his concerts. You don't know Johnny? That's Johnny Hallyday, France's answer to Elvis Presley and still going strong at the age of 72.

I suppose we should not be surprised to learn that Johnny feels the need to lip-sync his way through a few songs from time to time but it occurs to me that he would still need to stand up and that must be very tiring for someone his age. Perhaps it's not Johnny at all? Perhaps Johnny is not there at all? I don't know, I think Johnny  is there all right, but perhaps he is not all there.? We know of course that Johnny is not live and we must just hope, pray and trust that he is alive.

When we watch Midnight Mass beamed to us from Glasgow Cathedral can we be sure that we are watching a live performance? Is that the real live Archbishop McCoy delivering the sermon? Are we ourselves watching it live, or are we catching up on the BBC iPlayer?
François Hollande's New Year message does not go out live for security and other reasons,  although it is recorded live. In the old days, the Queen addressed the nation live, but now she records several years' worth at a time in mid-September, changing the odd word here and there.