[soft piano music]
[Man] A global epidemic now
-spreading fast- -[Woman] The number of
-confirmed coronavirus cases -The UK's infection rate
-stands at- -infection rate about to rise
to dangerous levels.
[Angela] After six weeks of lockdown,
our socially-distanced nation learned
that it wasn't just stocks of loo rolls in danger.
In the mother of all plot twists, a tiny virus from China
suddenly called wrap on our favourite TV shows.
[News Anchor] We know that the filming
has stopped on Corrie.
[Angela] Fresh supplies of soaps
and drama, would soon run out.
Everything's gonna be all right.
[Angela] But award-winning writer, Jeff Pope,
decided the curtains would not come down
on the stories of Britain.
It was the day that reality became fiction.
You should not go out, other than for exercise
and in that case, at a safe distance from others.
I am in 24-hour lockdown with a baby due in three weeks.
[Angela] Filming everything with mobile phones,
storylines were given a new lease of life.
You know, I haven't lost a leg, not yet.
[Angela] For the first time ever,
actors were encouraged to phone in their performance.
Just sitting here all alone getting fatter by the day.
Essential supplies, milk, bread and hemorrhoid cream.
[Angela] Under the most challenging conditions
the television industry has ever faced.
[phone buzzing]
A cosy life on location became a thing of the past.
[Robert] Merry Christmas.
[Angela] As actors rolled up their sleeves.
[Man] Once you've finished in the art department, Eddie,
could you go into the lighting department
and turn all the practical lights back on, please?
[Angela] And conscripted members
of their own households.
[Janine] I'm actually in the kitchen sink.
[laughing]
[Angela] To make four prime-time dramas
in the midst of a global pandemic.
We called it "Isolation Stories"
and this is how we did it.
[cheerful music]
Welcome to my world.
[Angela] The first isolation story
featured Sheridan Smith, playing Mel,
a soon-to-be first-time mum who was self-isolating.
♪ Beautiful dreamer ♪
♪ Awake unto me ♪
Nah, I just tried another angle
but it's probably wrong.
[Angela] After filming, Showrunner, Jeff,
caught up with Sheridan.
It must be one of the weirdest jobs you've done, isn't it?
[laughing]
It's bonkers.
It's bonkers but brilliant.
I mean when you got in touch with me first, admittedly,
obviously I'm heavily pregnant.
Heavily.
A few weeks away, so yeah, I mean, I was just thrilled
but I couldn't understand, like, how you were gonna do it?
I was thinking, "What do you mean, you're gonna be
at the end of the hall
and we're gonna-"
but now it's all come to life.
[Angela] Behind the scenes of Sheridan's film,
her boyfriend Jamie found himself
dropped in at the deep end.
My better half, Jamie, has been setting it all up
and what's great is, they're having a Zoom call,
with all the crew, being guided, where to set up the cameras
and everything.
A little, a little lower, Jamie
and then a little bit panned right.
Yeah that's good.
Even though it's just me and Jamie, actually in the house,
you feel like you've got everyone
in the room with you all the time.
Maybe let's try one where she actually articulates that.
You know, it's important to tell these stories
whilst it's happening, d'you know what I mean?
Rather than, there'll be so many people
who write about this after
and film crews will make things about it,
'cause it's an incredible time.
It's insane what we're going through.
I find it very touching that someone-
[Angela] We'll all remember 2020 as the year
video chat became an essential,
as it was to this production.
When Mel calls home to her parents
it was recorded as a life chat with actors, Philip Jackson
and his wife, Sally Baxter.
So how many of you are there?
Me and Alison, Shelley, Martin, Daniel, obviously.
Daniel's Dale, Shelley's Rob, three little ones.
Melanie, aw, look at you!
I mean I know I'm hormonal
but I've been crying
and just, I just think this nation has been amazing
and come together the way it has.
Cut, thank you.
Amazing guys, that's a great scene.
There's so much family history in that scene.
Right guys.
Thank you so much.
Lots of love
and lots of luck with the baby.
[Angela] Like many women,
Sheridan and her character, Mel, will be having their
first baby, during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Well the good thing is that our position is
probably very different to Mel's, let's say, we're together.
So I support her, you know
and so we've got that interaction.
[Woman] Oh Mel, you'll be a lovely mom.
People on their own,
-like the character Mel. -Yeah.
Like you, really feel for those people.
-Wow guys, what can I say? -Well done the two of you.
-Yeah, well done. -Thanks everyone.
Thank you, Jamie, we couldn't have done it without you,
with our trusty camera crew.
[laughing]
It's nice to be able to tell these stories,
while everyone's in lockdown
and give someone a little bit of entertainment each night.
♪ Beautiful dreamer ♪
♪ Awake unto me ♪
[giggling]
[cheerful music]
[Angela] Like it or loathe it, online video chat
allows us to connect when we can't get outside.
[doorbell ringing]
One second.
[Angela] And in the lockdown,
it helped prevent a national case of cabin fever.
In my isolation story, I played a therapist called Rochelle,
who had an online appointment with her client, Mike,
played by Darren Boyd.
[Angela] Don't you wanna go get it?
Hmm, no, no, no, no, I'll leave it there for a little bit.
Let the germs, you know.
Oh hello, welcome to the set.
The set, of course, being my living room.
There's our, sort of, in-story laptop
and we've got another camera there
and we've got another camera right here.
It's gonna be totally fine.
I've had a full four hours to learn the 15 page script.
Feel great, feel totally prepared, totally on top of it all.
Not skating on thin, mental ice, at all.
Feel your feet on the floor, stay grounded.
I'm literally light headed.
You're okay, you're all right.
Take your time.
It's fine, it's fine.
[recording whizzing]
[Angela] As an actor, I do love getting involved
with hair and makeup and costume.
But the one department, that never allows us actors
to play with their toys are the camera crew.
But that all changed on this shoot.
I got some equipment delivered by Roy.
Lovely Roy, who stayed two metres away
and he was fully masked up, gloves, the whole thing.
All the equipment had to be sterilised.
The batteries there
and there's another big box in there-
-Perfect. -to keep you going.
On my doorstep, he showed me how to use everything,
what buttons to press
and then he left.
[laughing]
And I had to ship it all in
and set it up in, fortunately I've got a room that
no one else is gonna be using.
We got it all set up
and then I was introduced to working by Zoom.
So if you lose laptop there
and just bring it forward.
Just lose it all together?
Yeah.
The actors were amazing
because they suddenly had to become camera operators
and DOPs and sound recordists
and they were charging the batteries
and doing the memory cards
and setting everything up.
David, which camera are you on?
Obviously they had, in my case, Michael and David
helping them with the technical side of things.
So exposure wise, why don't you bring it to
just above those green files.
Yep.
Darren Boyd, he was on his own,
so he was having to set up the cameras on his own
and find, you know, things to balance it on
because he didn't have necessarily have
as many tripods as he needed.
And luckily Angela's husband, was helping us with
the shooting of her side.
Okay, that one, I reckon one, leave that one.
Honest to God, like, four weeks ago,
I didn't even know what Zoom was.
[Angela] Are you doing anything physical?
Yes, yes.
I just, I was just doing a session, right now.
What's that?
With our film we're talking on the Zoom.
It's a washing line, I'm skipping.
A washing line?
Have you tried it?
As well as what we call, the com Zoom,
which is like where the DOP is and the director is.
[Man] So you're all sorted,
so might go off running with the baby jogger today.
[Darren] Yeah, it's cool.
And actually after a little while you do,
you get used to it.
You get used to tuning in and out of each one.
You know it's so hard for them
'cause they're trying to get in character,
they're listening to me
telling them how to record the camera,
they're listening to somebody else saying,
"Make sure you charge the batteries"
and "Can you connect to the internet?".
Okay, okay guys, we're having battery issues
so if you can try
and get to the end.
So it's very difficult for them
to be able to perform, in that sense.
I'm really amazed that we got the performances that we did.
You happy, David?
No, there's something wrong with seven.
You've got about six voices
and so you're as preoccupied with delivering what they want
and what they need, so they can do their job
because all they have is a screen
and verbal instruction.
Turning over.
Okay wrap, please.
It was definitely a true example of an ensemble effort
and team work.
It was kind of nice to sit down in my bedroom
and be like, "Oh look, I'm on set with my colleagues".
[Angela] Strange as it sounds, TV by remote control
does have some advantages.
This is the Exec Producer.
[Angela] Director Paul was able to watch
and influence from afar, whilst also enjoying some
one-on-one time with his newborn baby.
So, I'm gonna get a quick cuppa tea.
Yeah, if anyone wants tea or anything,
no one's gonna bring it to you, unfortunately.
Jason!
I need a tea!
[Jason] Yeah, baby?
I need a tea.
[Jason] What?
I need cuppa tea, if possible, please?
Do you not just have a little bell, Angela?
[laughing]
You've gone a bit, you're rocking a bit?
Ahhh!
It's more important than ever to remember
that if you use it properly, you can have intimacy.
You can really connect.
[Rochelle shouting]
Roch?
I mean thank goodness it's now,
when we do have this
because what was it, it was 2005, there was no,
everyone was still doing dial up modems and so on.
Yes.
To see someone, to look someone in the eye.
Especially times, like now,
when it's essentially all we have.
Now...
do you wanna have a little dance with me?
What?
I've never met Darren before,
bizarrely we've connected.
So the power of the laptop
does means that you are still managing to get,
what feels like, human connection.
It's gonna be so weird, when we actually meet each other.
["Celebration"]
♪ Wahoo! ♪
Come on!
♪ It's a celebration ♪
Ooh, look at you!
♪ Celebrate good times, come on ♪
[laughing]
[Angela] Making a drama in the lockdown
gets complicated when our "Isolation Stories"
become a family affair.
♪ Celebrate good times, come one ♪
[cheerful music]
[upbeat music]
"Isolation Stories" are the first ITV dramas made
since the COVID-19 crisis pulled the plug
on scripted productions across the nation.
Under strict lockdown conditions,
four short films were made.
Technology was pushed to it's limits.
Sound rolling.
Morning everyone I've obviously done a stream of helium.
[laughing]
[Angela] With inexperienced crew.
Twenty six, take one.
[Angela] And teams of professionals were stuck in doors.
I'm missing the location catering.
[laughing]
[Angela] Nobody has ever made TV
quite like this before.
Let's cut there.
[Angela] So we're taking you for a behind-the-scenes
look at the future of television.
Okay, so no rows at home yet?
All going well?
I don't know, we've been remarkably--
Ooh!
[laughing]
Jeremy Beadle has arrived.
Let's just hope it all gets back to normal soon.
[cheerful music]
[Angela] When social distancing restrictions
were imposed, we were effectively imprisoned,
with members of our household.
Some families, desperate for unity,
suddenly find themselves, more divided
and this scene is picked up in "Karen".
A film featuring Eddie Marsan,
who is also under lockdown
with his two sons, Blu and Bodhi.
This is a story about a man
whose marriage has broken down
and he's trying to deal with that, within lockdown.
Which sets a whole new collection of problems to deal with.
[Angela] The isolation story begins with a surprise
visit from their estranged grandpa.
Jesus, that's all we need.
Played by David Threlfall.
Keeping the two main cast members a safe distance apart
was of paramount importance on this shoot.
Fortunately David came prepared.
He revived his classic Threlfall method
to keep Eddie at least two metres away.
It's not been unknown in the past
and I didn't do on this,
I didn't shower for four days while we filmed.
No but then that's isolation for you.
David was gonna make his entrance, his big entrance
and just as he came running in character
our tortoise decided to come out of hibernation
[laughing]
and walk across the garden.
[laughing]
Our tortoise has just come into shot.
[Woman] Tortoise?
[Eddie] He always wanted to be an actor
he just, he just couldn't come out of his shell.
You'd get started, ready to do a take
and you'd have to go, "Hang on!"
-"What?" -"Elvis, Elvis"
and sometimes when I didn't see him,
Eddie and the whole family were going, like-
and I'm going, "Hey, hey!"
and they're going, "No, no, Elvis, Elvis!"
I said, "I can't do Elvis, I can do Eric Morcambe
but I can't do Elvis".
I had to remove him from the premises, obviously
and give him a good talking to
and say, "Look, listen mate", you know.
Anyway, we put him in the corner, gave him headphones,
he could hear everything, so it was okay, you know.
Me and David were chatting from six feet away
and he said to me, that when we were young actors
he used to take two or three weeks to work on a character
and then he'd bring it to the screen.
It's that visual side of things, has always interested me
so it's quite pleasing.
It's also pleasing just to-
I was near enough to get on my motorbike, in costume,
put the helmet on, in the sunshine, drive round to Eddie's
walk down the side alleyway
and go straight to the back garden, not having seen anybody.
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Who's that?
It's so liberating, actually, to get it.
I mean, who wants a pandemic? No thank you
but I mean it's so liberating.
It's great to have done it, in such a short time.
This is it, 'kay, once we've got this bit of them
they'll be finished for the day.
Home schooling is going on
and it's our home, it's our kitchen as well.
So really that was quite exhausting.
When I was outside looking in, when lunch was called,
that was, I brought that, that was my Tupperware salad
but all that time, Eddie and Janine had to feed the family.
When they weren't doing that, they were moving lights.
When they weren't doing that,
they were putting the clapperboards on
and all the technical stuff.
So they were there on the move, you know,
pretty much all day.
Probably the most intense thing was when we had lunch,
we had to cook lunch for the kids on set
and then clean it up afterwards in time to get back
and shoot in the afternoon.
Sorry, I've just got to mute you.
Janine was amazing, she was multi-tasking.
I was just in the toilet, making out it was my trailer,
demanding coffees, all day long.
[laughing]
[Kids] Mom!
[Angela] Beautiful as the Marsan's kitchen is,
it was never designed to be a film set.
Is that you reflected, Janine?
[indistinct]
In that corner class?
The limitations of having so much glass and mirror
and trying to keep myself out of it,
in the parameters of the shot.
So, yes, I've learnt a lot.
[Angela] But in the end, Janine put all that pesky
reflective glass to good use,
in a sequence of poignant end-shots,
that will have professional cinematographers
quaking in their boots.
[sad music]
[cheerful music]
[Angela] Over the past few weeks,
many of us have cared
for a loved one with COVID-19 symptoms
and this was dramatised,
in the isolation story, "Ron and Russell"
starring real-life father and son,
Robert and Tom Glenister.
I brought you some breakfast.
The fact that I'm doing it with Tom, is a bonus
because we sort of have, there's a sort of an understanding,
a sort of, we don't really.
-Shorthand. -Shorthand that's the word.
I just wanna go home.
I don't know why they put me in here.
This is your home, dad.
What's fascinating doing this
is this simplicity of how we're doing it
and the simplicity of being able to tell the story
because you haven't got,
I suppose for want of a better word,
the paraphernalia, that's often associated
with film making et cetera
and we haven't got the time.
[cheerful music]
It's the roles reversed really, it's one of those things
where actually you realise how easy actors have it on set.
[laughing]
Gaffer, best boy.
[Tom] It started with a very carefully thought out,
safe delivery of equipment phones and laptops and stuff,
left outside the house.
Merry Christmas.
Which we then, had to go and collect and bring in.
We're not stock piling, it's an essential prop.
Believe that, you'll believe anything.
[Angela] But once dad had all the props
and technical kit in the house.
It was up to mom, Celia, to do all the heavy lifting.
It's a huge responsibility, especially
because you know, I was actually going to be doing,
sort of, five people's jobs.
You were art director
-and props master. -Yeah.
-You were everything. -Yes but I'm loving it.
You know, I'm running about.
Ask me at half past eight tonight, how I'm feeling.
[laughing]
She actually physically moved the whole tripod
towards the window, so.
[Celia] That's as far as I can go.
[Cameraman] Okay, that's cool.
I mean it's been amazing, I mean I've learned so much
in a very short space of time
and I'm thinking of changing my career.
[laughing]
[Director] Mark it.
Scene 6, take 1.
[clapperboard clapping]
It's all been messages being transferred
from outside the house, into the house.
We could do this for the rest of lockdown,
just do films like this.
[laughing]
We can bring the squad team, guys, that's good
but Celia, you're coming everywhere with us.
Mum, suddenly becoming a DOP
and being told how to set up cameras
and how to set up lights and microphones.
If you can pan right, so I can see the other knob
at the end of the bed, please?
That's no way to describe me!
[laughing]
Hold it there, Celia.
[cheerful music]
[coughing]
What are you wearing?
[Angela] Playing a seriously ill man
presents its own challenges.
Come on, I've got to take your temperature.
[Angela] Under lockdown conditions,
no makeup team can go within two metres of Robert.
That's a turkey probe.
[Angela] So, it's up to the family
and Robert, himself, to make the fever look realistic.
Where are you gonna put it?
Under your tongue.
I talked to Janet, the makeup designer
and we were going to, sort of, pale him down a bit
and then, I remember a photograph of Boris Johnson
when he was outside No. 10,
doing the first clapping for the NHS
and he seemed very, quite puce to me and quite red.
So I suggested that we have a look without makeup
and I just, I had a beard before we started
so I shaved that off
and just got a bit of stubble,
swept my hair back
and we got sweat,
there's sort of custom-made bottle of sweat,
I mean, not real sweat, obviously.
[laughing]
And you just spray it on
and all of a sudden, you look hot and sweaty.
Okay end board.
[clapperboard clapping]
Boy, unbelievably brilliant.
You've made me cry, three times in a row.
[cheerful music]
[Angela] The film culminates with a scene
that's become a unifying phenomemon
in locked down nations across the world.
[Presenter] Millions of us, will show our support,
for our wonderful NHS and key workers
by standing outside our homes and applauding.
[Angela] Current restrictions on social gathering,
meant summoning an army of extras was off limits
but fortunately this wasn't gonna stop Director, Louise,
from getting all the shots she needed.
[Louise] You know, you can move a little bit so
and then if you come down to him clapping.
[Angela] Luckily the Glenister's live
on a very special street.
[Tom] Not just on the Thursdays
but every single night at eight o'clock
everyone comes out
and it's, kind of, it's amazing.
We've got a couple of nurses on our road
and a couple of people who work for the NHS,
so it's, yeah, it's quite special.
[pans banging]
[neighbours cheering]
Did you get, were you getting to go round getting
some of those isolated ones of the neighbours?
[Louise] Yeah, we've got some, just a cameo,
so it's an old couple
and some kids and we've got people with a horn.
[pots banging]
[crowd cheering]
[Angela] Maybe TV drama
will be made like this forever more.
[crowd cheering]
Or perhaps the virus, just presented a bump in the road.
For me?
[Angela] Who wants to predict the future?
A few months ago we could never imagine
being where we are now.
So let's just be glad,
that we could tell these "Isolation Stories" today.
[cheerful music]
[letters vibrating]