TV companies doing good job in hard times

I THINK Lindy Mcdowell (Life, May 2) was very unfair about television having “let us down badly”. It could hardly have provided a coronavirus season, like it does at Christmas and usually Easter; the lockdown would have come as a surprise to them too.

Obviously, film and recording schedules would have been hit hard, with many productions — Line of Duty, Eastenders, Emmerdale and Peaky Blinders — instantly stopped, with many others following suit and some being ‘rationed’ to eek out what they had.

This has caused — and will continue to cause — lots of scheduling nightmares for months to come.

But the BBC has been magnificent and put many favourites on iplayer that many may have missed. These include Taboo, Spooks and Wolf Hall, as well as comedy like Gavin and Stacey.

There are films and vintage drama and documentary: Channel 4 and ITV have done something similar.

So, if you are not finding what you want on transmission, please take a look at catch-up and discover the joys of watching TV that you’d always meant to watch.

And look at how they responded to lockdown. The BBC did an entire Comic Relief/children in Need, virtually all on Zoom and camera phones. Even Graham Norton is doing chat from his living room. There is no need to watch a lot of quiz shows, unless you want to.

Don’t blame the TV companies — they’ve been hit hard and find themselves with an audience requiring more hours of TV than they can easily provide. They have risen to it magnificently.

Just look a bit harder for the treasure.

CHRISTINE WILSON Newtownabbey, Co Antrim