Coronavirus

Goodbye to all that: Peter Bazalgette looks back on 2020

JANUARY

“Great fears of the Sicknesse here in the City, it being said that two or three houses are already shut up. God preserve us all.” The very first mention of the plague in The Diary of Samuel Pepys, on 30 April 1665. Fast forward 355 years and there’s this on 11 January on the ITV News site: “Health authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan are reporting the first death from a new type of coronavirus.”

Back in Production - Unlocking the TV Production industry in a COVID-19 world

The guidelines provide practical suggestions for assessing and managing the risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) whilst in production, but in practical terms what are the biggest challenges? How are different departments having to innovate? What is the impact on the finished product? What at the biggest challenges? How are we balancing physical and mental well-being of cast and crew? And what learnings can be shared between productions and between countries?

Industry impact of Covid-19

We will look at the prospects for TV advertising, the public and private organisations’ funding models, and the implications for the BBC and the broader PSB system. We will also ask what Ofcom and the government need to do to ensure the continued success of our TV sector.

Speakers:

  • Lindsey Clay , CEO, Thinkbox
  • Claire Enders, Founder, Enders Analysis
  • Damian Green MP
  • Sean McGuire, Managing Director, Oliver & Ohlbaum
  • Chaired by Kate Bulkley, Media Commentator

How Waddell Media is riding out the coronavirus storm

Little on TV cheers up audiences more than seeing animals brought back to health, so Waddell Media’s new series Work on the Wild Side is coming to screens at just the right time.

The 20 one-hour shows will be stripped across the daytime week on Channel 4 from mid-May. They follow vets and volunteers who have given up their jobs in the UK and moved to South Africa to rescue animals, and reintroduce them to the wild.

Grayson Perry to host Channel 4’s Grayson’s Art Club

Grayson Perry (Credit: Channel 4)

Grayson’s Art Club will take viewers on an artistic journey to help ease the boredom of lockdown.

Each episode will have a theme and the series will include tips on how to take that first step into the art world, offer creative inspiration and show viewers how to have fun and create an artistic mess.

For each theme, Grayson will ask viewers to send in their creations, along with celebrity guests who will also be making their own artwork, with surprising results.

Channel 4 announces new Coronavirus factual slate

The slate will follow the scientists striving to tackle the virus and the human stories of those on the front line.

 

Pandemic: Can Science beat Coronavirus?

First up is a strictly scientific, one-off panel show, whereby leading experts will aim to answer the country’s most pressing questions.

Among those answering the nation's questions will be a virologist offering insight into the search for a vaccine, and an epidemiologist explaining inconsistencies in the data.

Free from politics, Pandemic will provide frank and factual discussions.