THEY’VE MADE A DRAMA out of the crisis

Angela Griffin and Sheridan Smith star in a new series inspired by the lockdown

As millions of us have been finding out over the past few weeks, you have to be adaptable when it comes to working from home. And the inventiveness demanded by the coronavirus lockdown has given birth to an ingenious new drama series, filmed in the actors’ homes with family members recruited as cast and crew.

The quartet of stories from screenwriter and producer Jeff Pope (Philomena, Cilla) features some of our leading small-screen stars, with each 15-minute episode reflecting the singular moment in history in which we are all caught up.

The series begins with heavily pregnant

Mel (broadcast on Monday) starring a pregnant Sheridan Smith (above right) as a single mother struggling in isolation, alone and apart from the married man who’s the father of her baby. Happily for Smith, while her pregnancy is a reality, this emotive tale is a work of fiction: fiance Jamie Horn is very much by her side and though a novice proves himself to be an adept camera operator.

In Ron And Russell (Tuesday), Robert Glenister is joined by his son Tom for the story of a father being nursed through the effects of coronavirus, as their forced confinement together demands that they face uncomfortable truths about their relationship.

There’s dark humour in Mike And Rochelle (Wednesday), starring Darren Boyd as a neurotic hypochondriac and Angela Griffin (above left) as the psychiatrist tasked with trying to reassure a patient whose every worst fear seems to have been realised by the pandemic.

The ever-dependable Eddie Marsan is joined by his young sons Blu and Bodhi in Karen (Thursday) as he plays a broken man left with the children after his wife leaves him. Outside the back window trying to repair a shattered family is his father-in-law, played by Shameless star David Threlfall (and don’t worry, lockdown regulations allowed him to travel to the location at the real-life Marsan family home).

Finally, in Isolation Stories: Behind The Scenes (Thursday, 11pm), Pope and his stars reveal the sometimes bizarre story of the making of this unprecedented series. In the future when someone asks ‘What was the lockdown like?’, this is what to show them.