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There’s no stopping Ross Kemp. While most of the country has been holed up at home, the former soap star turned investigative journalist has been duly documenting the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, first with his divisive film Ross Kemp: On The NHS Frontline, and now via a new five-part series, Ross Kemp: Britain’s Volunteer Army.
Spread across a week, the latter will celebrate the everyday efforts of the nation’s army of volunteers.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen NHS frontline workers working in the ICUS, the isolation wings, and that will stay with me for a very long time,” the 55-year-old said.
“But for me, the biggest thing that comes from what I’ve seen, in terms of the British public’s response to this pandemic, has been the fact that we aren’t a very big country, but we do have an awfully big heart.
“When our backs are against the wall, we certainly come together in the most amazing way,” he explained.
He recalls an emotional shoot on a street in High Wycombe recently, where he witnessed the heartfelt coming together of the local community.
“I said on my last piece to camera,‘if 20% of what’s happening on this street is mirrored elsewhere in the cul-de-sacs and the roads of the UK, and we can keep that after the pandemic has gone, then something very positive would have come from this awfully dark time’.
“It’s brought people from different ethnicities, different backgrounds, class divide, religions, different beliefs, together,” he added.
But while the series reflects the volunteering efforts happening around the UK, the former Eastender, who is seen sewing scrubs for NHS staff, has remained close to home as part of government guidelines.
Those he encountered includes a gin distillery making hand sanitiser for local organisations in need of PPE; a rugby club that puts up its match day gazebos to enable medics to safely meet patients; and a woman who organises food donations from local supermarkets.
Meanwhile, those further afield have been self-filming for the series, with Ross “meeting” others on video calls.
“One day I walked into the church where they were collecting donations of food for people – this is in a relatively affluent area, but people are just running out of food – and I just welled up,” he said.“i was just absolutely knocked back by the generosity of the human spirit. If we can hold on to some of that, that can’t be a bad thing.”
Ross Kemp: Britain’s Volunteer Army, BBC 1, Monday-friday, 10am