They could listen, even offer advice, but they were otherwise helpless spectators.

Jean is a sort of helpless but passionate spectator, sweetly anxious when his father becomes ill and worried when he is in danger.

Leonid Brezhnev seemed a model of toughness, Jimmy Carter a helpless spectator.

He felt like a helpless spectator.

But he was a helpless spectator.

He knew what it meant, and the helpless spectator trapped within him begged the auburn-haired Grayson not to lose control.

So now, as helpless spectators - quite literally, a captive audience - they could watch their unfolding doom.

True, the nation's presidents are not helpless spectators, certainly not as helpless as their constituents.

That is what is urgently needed if we are not to be helpless spectators while jobs in European industry are wiped out.

Binti walked to the boy's side while helpless spectators screamed, certain the gorilla would harm the child.