television stepped up

we want you to know how grateful we are. THANK YOU!

@katherinemcphotography Photo by BBC Hospital Special: Fighting Covid-19 Aired in May 2020 Image Credit: BBC/Label1/Daniel Dewsbury

what the television industry brought to us in our time of crisis

Creative innovation ON SCREEN IN LOCKDOWN 11

Isolation Stories

Evident almost immediately was the concern on all levels of how future material was going to be created. equally we needed to see what was happening in the outside world now more than ever. but would that mean risking people’s lives to bring us that information? we followed some amazing productions from news, documenteries and drama created entirely in isolation.

A BBC Hospital special Fighting COVID-19 started airing in May. Following staff working on the NHS frontline tackling the virus. The picture on the previous page shows Marta Campbell Consultant Anaesthetist at the Royal Free Hospital. An eye opening and vivid look into what working on the frontline really entails. Definietly worth a look on iPlayer if you didn’t see it.

Our favourite productions were the four short dramas starring Sheridan Smith, Robert and Tom Glenister, Eddie Marsan, Angela Griffin, DarrenBoyd, David Threlfall, Michael Jibson, Leanne Best and Philip Jackson filmed entirely in the actors homes. Produced by Oscar nominated writer and producer Jeff Pope this was the innovation we really needed to see.

Isolation Stories was filmed observing strict rules of lockdown with actors and their families filming the scenes themselves, watched remotely by the directors. Each of the directors - Paul Whittington, Paul Andrew Williams, Louise Hooper

and David Blair watched footage via their laptops giving advice to the actors and their family members about camera positioning, scene composition and lighting as they recorded the scenes. And the result was astonishing, moving, engaging and offered a much needed ray of hope to actors and our industry.

The making of such strong drama in extreme circumstances in such a short space of time has inspired us all. Thank you to this incredible team of talent for sharing this with us.

Images with thanks to ITV

STAGED

based on an original idea by simon evans and phin glynn, staged was written and directed by simon evans for bbc one.

This increidbly innovative series takes on the challenges of creating a drama in lockdown, on stage and off. Georgia Tennant, Lucy Eaton and Anna Lundberg along with special guests including Nina Sosanya and Dame Judy Dench this was a must see series. An insanely talented line-up gave us the absolute privilege of seeing these masters at work. For us it was a bit like watching the best self-tapes EVER! Starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen, or should that be the other way around... they play exagerated

versions of themselves in lockdown. The chemistry between these two brilliant actors is immediately evident during their daily video communication. And it works! Just at the point we were all so OVER virtual meetings and pixilated rectangles on our screens, Staged showed us how it could be done.

An extraordinary blend of humour, reality, emotional suffering and inflated egos, had us gripped from begining to end by the combined skill and talent in this cleverly written and directed production.

Thank you to everyone involved. You made us laugh, cry, reflect, project and most of all, you gave us hope.

If you didn’t see it, then make a point of downloading from BBC iplayer now.