Dancing in the dark
Beginning of the Enders in a 2m Square ‘Live’ feel for BBC listeners in their homes Actress Catherine Tyldesley’s fears for Strictly celebs without live audience My husband and son had Covid last November
Danny and Luisa
EASTENDERS actors were practising perfect social distancing as they returned to work this week, filming around the market on Albert Square.
The production crew used measuring sticks to check distances between actors such as Danny Dyer, who plays Mick Carter, and Luisa BradshawWhite (Tina Carter).
The new scenes are expected to go out on BBC1 in September, when EastEnders returns with four weekly, 20-minute episodes.
Soap boss Jon Sen said: “Resuming production is incredibly exciting and challenging in equal measure.”
He added: “Since we postponed filming we have been working non-stop, trialling techniques, filming methods and new ways of working.”
Radio 4’s Brian Cox
BEEB bosses are using Zoom to record radio entertainment shows to “recreate the live audience feeling”.
Members of the public, who cannot go to theatre recordings due to lockdown, are instead being invited to join in the live event via home computers.
The BBC says it has developed the virtual audience recording system so participants, who will be asked to whoop and cheer, will feel as if they are in a studio.
The first attempt at a virtual audience takes place on Friday at the recording of Radio 4 science and comedy show The Infinite Monkey Cage, with presenters Brian Cox and Robin Ince.
Tickets are available on the BBC website till tomorrow. A source said: “When everything’s mixed it’ll sound amazing.”
Soap star Cath Tyldesley enjoyed audience
Cath and husband Tom
CATH Tyldesley’s husband and fiveyear-old son have both tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies – and she believes they may have had the virus more than six months ago.
Photographer Tom Pitfield and little Alfie both fell ill on a family holiday to Dubai, with Tom ending up being hospitalised with breathing difficulties.
Neither have been poorly since and now Cath thinks they contracted coronavirus on the flight in November – months before experts believe the disease arrived in the UK. Cath, 36,
CATHERINE Tyldesley fears that this year’s Strictly Come Dancing celebs will “struggle” without a live audience.
The BBC announced last week that the 2020 series of the show will be shorter than in past years.
It is likely to be filmed without hundreds of fans in the studio, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Former Coronation Street actress Catherine, 36, who competed on Strictly last year, thinks that the stars will miss the energy from the live audience, and says their routines will suffer.
She said: “For me, the audience was a huge part of it. If you were having a bad week and the judges were slating your dance, then the audience were the ones who would lift you up. It’s going to be very different. Do I think I would struggle in those circumstances?
“Yes. Because I fed off the audience. As an actress, I play to the audience not the judges.”
But she added: “I know that the contestants this year will still have an amazing time, because the BBC will ensure that.”
Catherine, who got to week five with her professional partner, Johannes Radebe, 33, continued: “This sounds ridiculous
CATHERINE TYLDESLEY ON PLAYING TO AUDIENCE posted on Instagram: “We have just got our test results back. I thought Tom and Alfie had it in November and nobody quite believed it. It turns out I was right.
“This ugly little b ***** d of a disease has been flying around longer than we have been told.”
Cath and her family’s flight was delayed for 27 hours – before a passenger fell ill and collapsed on it.
After arriving at their hotel, Tom became ill in the night and Cath had to call an ambulance. She stayed in the hotel room with distraught Alfie while Tom went to hospital alone. Tom was because I was in Strictly, but I’m not a competitive person. Me and [EastEnders actress] Emma Barton would say to each other that our worst nightmare would be to be in the dance-off together.”
She told The Capsule podcast: “I just wanted to make the audience feel something. If I accomplished that week in and week out, which I hope we did, then I was happy because I’m an actress, that’s what I do. If I made them laugh then great, if I made them cry, great.”
The Beeb is making a number of changes to ensure Strictly can be filmed this year. A BBC spokesman said: “To ensure we deliver the high standards audiences know and love, and in light of ongoing considerations around Covid19, this year’s series of Strictly will have a slightly shorter run than usual.”
The show is expected to start in October, rather than September. And it is unlikely that fans will be able to cram into Elstree Studios, Herts.
The BBC is pre-recording the professionals’ group dances in advance. And the number of contestants is likely to be reduced from 15 to 13 so the final can be held in its usual slot a week before Christmas.
The BBC said: “The safety of our cast and crew is of the utmost importance to us.”
I wanted to entertain the crowd, make them laugh and cry
Cath & Johannes discharged with antibiotics and Cath spent the holiday nursing both of them, as Alfie fell ill a few days later.
A source said: “Cath just thought it was bad luck when Tom and Alfie fell ill. But when the symptoms of Covid became more widely known this year, she suspected they had had it as Tom also had no sense of taste or smell.
“After her Instagram post she has been contacted by the families of other passengers on the same flight as they also fell ill. She knows they could have had it at a later date without symptoms but it seems like a huge coincidence.”