Channel 4

Once again participants will get the opportunity to be anyone they want to be in order to gain popularity.

Emma Willis will return to host and comedian Sophie Willan will continue to voiceover the reality series.

To follow covid-19 filming guidelines, there will be no studio audience or live shows and the format will change to a pre-recorded set-up.  

Players will move into their own separate apartments in the same apartment block and the only way they can communicate is through a social media platform called The Circle.

Anna Mallett, CEO of ITN for the past 12 months, could be forgiven for looking a little wearied. Even before coronavirus struck, the news organisation was working full tilt, covering such seismic events as Brexit, the Conservative Party leadership contest and a particularly fractious pre-Christmas general election. And now this.

Lockdown begins five weeks early for me. Not due to Covid-19 but because, on 18 February, I become a dad. Welcome, Roscoe. I plan to avoid looking at email for the first month.

Three weeks later, on 11 March, I give in. Louisa Compton, editor of Channel 4’s Dispatches, wants quick ideas on coronavirus. I send her a barmy notion about shooting a film in one day, editing it in a week, and broadcasting seven days after filming.

The guidelines will allow productions to get up and running again, with the emphasis on the safety and well-being of employees.

The guide will be applicable to a broad range and scale of TV programmes of all genres and have been created with the collaboration of industry experts and the external expertise of Dr Paul Litchfield CBE.

Broadcasters have liaised with union representatives and the Health and Safety Executive and worked with First Option safety consultants to the media and entertainment industry.

The TV Collective coaches, champions and connects BAME workers with each other and to paid opportunities.

The sessions will help to specifically address the challenges BAME professionals face and will be a mix of free live talks and Q&A’s led by industry experts across TV, digital media and the creative industries.

Each session will allow attendees to discuss and collaborate and receive career advice, while exploring the new business models and ways of working adopted by the industry.

I Know This Much Is True

Sky Atlantic

Monday 11^th May, 9pm

Matt Ruffalo stars in and executive produces Sky Atlantic’s I Know This Much Is True, which is based on the novel of the same name by Wally Lamb.

The writer was talking at an RTS North West online Q&A in late April. He recalled the 2008 recession, when friends at ITV told him, “‘We don’t know if we can show this episode of The Bill tonight,’ [because] they were so short of advertisers and money.

“This recession is going to be even bigger and it’s going to affect the commercial channels hugely… and [the streamers] will start cutting back as well.

“We’ve got a Government that is morally and profoundly opposed to the BBC. Please don’t think they’ll change their minds about the BBC in this crisis.”

Warm, witty and occasionally waspish, Joe Lycett is just the man to keep us entertained during lockdown. It’s fortunate, then, that he is presenting two lengthy prime-time TV series, with another on the way. And after a whirlwind few months making them, Lycett – while mindful of the suffering that Covid-19 has brought many – concludes that the new normal has been beneficial to his mental health.

Mo Gilligan’s All Star Happy Hour

Channel 4

Monday 4^th May, 10pm

Comedian Mo Gilligan is the latest star to broadcast his own show from home, with Mo Gilligan’s All Star Happy Hour.

From couples isolating together who are still enjoying the honeymoon period, to cohabitating couples stuck in a rut, or even singletons who want to spice up their phone sex, the show will reveal what people get up to behind closed doors, along with some handy 'how to' guides.

Richardson also shares the results of a specially commissioned poll which exposes how people’s relationships and habits have changed during the lockdown.