We’ll have a blessing and a shindig after it’s all blown over

those who are left isolated or lonely to chat to others on there.

Adele Bailey, who helped to start the group, said: “The country needs to work together.

“It is people themselves who will crack on and do things.”

There are stories of similar community spirit from all over the country – around 250 in total, offering services from shopping and dog walking to companionship.

Residents of Bishopston, Bristol, took part in street singing to keep their spirits up while social-distancing. Pub landlord Chris Williams, 43, and his dad Peter, 73, demonstrated how they could deliver beer to selfisolated pensioners with a fishing rod.

Chris, a keen angler who runs the Holly Bush Inn in Makeney, Derbys, said: “You can attach our four and two-pint delivery kegs to a line.

Catch

“If there are any keen anglers who are self-isolated they can reel in supplies just like a catch of the day.”

Breweries are also stepping up door-to-door deliveries in a bid to rescue the industry after pubs were ordered to close. The Government has relaxed licensing rules allowing businesses to sell and deliver direct to drinkers without the need for an off-sales licence.

Singer Steve Linn, of Bournemouth, Dorset, has been serenading elderly people in care homes from the garden as they sit behind the windows.

Even in underpressure hospitals, hero nurses found a way to lift spirits.

Sandra Roberts and her colleague Lyn Roberts went viral after they posted a video of their theatre team at Basildon Hospital, Essex, boogying to the song Dance With Me Tonight by Olly Murs.

Olly, 35, has pledged to give the team free tickets to his next gig. Dementia patients Sally and Ken – both in their eighties and isolating in Penzance, Cornwall – became an internet sensation with a video of Sally playing piano while Ken danced.

In Liverpool, Paul Durand, chef and proprietor of the Little Shoe restaurant and micro bakery, let customers pay for homemade pies to be delivered to the elderly and vulnerable.

Paul said: “It’s a bleak time but there are a lot of good, good people out there.”

The vicar of St Budeaux in Plymouth provided a laugh when he accidentally set his jumper on fire by getting too near a candle during an internet sermon.

Rev Stephen Beach summed up the UK’S spirit as he calmly declared: “Oh dear, I’ve just caught fire.”