Television Magazine

As one of the world’s production behemoths, Fremantle – whose shows range from Pop Idol via Neighbours to My Brilliant Friend – is determined to think laterally as it adapts to life in the age of Covid-19.

In several countries, Fremantle continued making content throughout lockdown. “We’re a truly global company, so we never actually stopped producing,” says Andrea Scrosati, the firm’s COO. He is normally based in London but has been based in his native Tuscany for the past two months or so.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The 1980s Billy Ocean lyric, no doubt part of the soundtrack to the teenage lives of the six menopausal women in new, Brighton-set “drama-with-funny-bits” Dun Breedin’, could be the mantra of its creator, Julie Graham, who starred in ITV’s Benidorm.

She wowed the judges with her work on BBC One smash hit Strictly Come Dancing, “consistently impressing audiences and fans, never failing to entertain and constantly exhibiting an amazingly varied array of skills and techniques”.

What makes a good make-up artist?

You have to have a talent and an eye for it – a good artist pushes boundaries. But you also need confidence and integrity – what goes on in the make-up room stays in the make-up room.

So you need personal as well as technical skills?

Independent producers are the most vulnerable to the economic carnage unleashed on the television sector by corona­virus. That was the consensus of a lively RTS webinar examining the impact of Covd-19 on the UK’s TV and related content industries. However, despite this worrying situation, there was agreement that all the British broadcasters would survive the downturn.

Michaela doesn’t skirt issues – she goes straight at them.” Executive producer Roberto Troni is talking about Michaela Coel’s fearless new drama I May Destroy You, which explores sexual consent in contemporary London.

The 12-part BBC One/HBO series is, to an extent, based on personal experience – like her character, Arabella, Coel was sexually assaulted after her drink was spiked, an experience she revealed two years ago while giving the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International TV Festival.

It is his first foray into the world of celebrity since the TV series When Louis Met…. As he and his guests navigate the new territory of remote interviewing, his signature silences could be mistaken for a Zoom glitch or a phone delay.

Theroux kicks off the series with a conversation with his professional rival, documentary-maker Jon Ronson.

They discuss their shared TV experiences and some of Ronson’s notable career moments. These include trying to organise a night in a haunted house for Robbie Williams.

From a distance of close to half a century, London is almost unrecognisable. Cortinas and Consuls squeal around a semi-­derelict city, pockmarked by Second World War bomb sites. Houses and shops are dilapidated, a permanent pall of smoke hangs in the boozers; people look old, even those who aren’t. Everything is grey.

Everything except detective inspector Jack Regan’s iconic brown suit and green kipper tie. And he was always hungry for nicking villains: “We’re the Sweeney, son, and we haven’t had any dinner – you’ve kept us waiting.”

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.

Even in this strange world of lockdown, it’s all relative. While many of us can amble to our backyard or at least to the hall cupboard, Tanya Moodie is stuck on a chair when I speak to her via FaceTime at her sunny south London home.

“I’m on lockdown 2.0,” she explains, flipping her screen to show off her leg, in plaster up to the knee. What happened? She grimaces. “It was April Fool’s Day, I got over-excited trying to punk my daughter, and ended up falling down the stairs.”

Anyone who’s been to an RTS awards ceremony will be familiar with the work of Scottish firm Midton Acrylics, maker for these past 30 years of the Society’s much-coveted and distinctive trophies.

As the coronavirus crisis deepened, Midton swapped making awards to manufacturing plastic visors to help protect health workers treating local Covid-19 patients.

The company has produced up to 600 visors a day from its factory in Lochgilphead, Argyll.

The visors have been sent to Oban’s Lorn & Islands Hospital and Mid Argyll Community Hospital in Lochgilphead.