’ELLO, ’ELLO, ’ELLO – IT’S THE DOWNWARD POLICE DOG

No Masks (Sky Arts/NowTV) Verdict: Bleak but lyrical ★★★II

AS PART of the launch of Sky Arts on Freeview, Russell Tovey (below) stars in a tough but moving film of monologues about key workers battling the pandemic in East London.

It’s the brainchild of Theatre Royal Stratford East’s artistic director Nadia Fall and playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz, and based on unflinching real-life testimonies.

Tovey plays an amiable policeman who is also a yoga practitioner. Amusingly, he delivers part of his monologue while doing downward dog in his living room. But cheerful though he is, the tone darkens when he talks, movingly, of finding a young man dead at home.

The film is a kind of elegy for the first part of 2020’s Covid malaise. So don’t expect light relief, even from the brilliant Anna CalderMarshall. She stars as a roll-upsmoking Greenham Common veteran preparing for her departure to the Pearly Gates, but still agitating for a revolution to free us from the plague of sourdough. Also featured are Eamonn Walker as a care worker, Anya Chalotra as a stressed junior doctor and Lorraine Ashbourne as a palliative care nurse. It possesses a lyricism seldom seen on TV or stage, but it’s also defiantly gritty; those in need of escape may prefer other Sky Arts shows. These include the anniversary recording of Phantom Of The Opera at the Royal Albert Hall, starring Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo; and the slightly mangy 1998 recording of Cats with Elaine Paige, which airs on Sunday. Those with a Sky subscription or Now TV can catch up on demand.