TONIGHT’S TV CHOICE
NEW Dating No Filter Sky One, 10pm
If you’re up for going on a blind date, surely you have to have the ability to laugh at yourself? That’s the bottom line for this cheeky spin on the dating format where the unlikely archers firing Cupid’s arrows in the direction of lovelorn hearts are comedians. Would you trust your amorous prospects to Daisy May Cooper and Joel Dommett?
Stand Up And Deliver C4, 9pm
More funny business, this time featuring comedians ‘teaching’ celebrities how to do stand-up as part of Stand Up To Cancer. It’s brave of the comedians involved because, by our yardstick, pupil
Shaun Ryder can out-gag teacher Jason Manford any happy Monday.
How To Keep A Healthy Weight With Michael Mosley C4, 8pm
If you diet, are you destined to pack the pounds on after? Dr Mosley revisits dieters from some of his earlier shows to find out. No great surprises in store but you have to admire his ability to turn common sense into a franchise.
Your Garden Made Perfect BBC2, 8pm
This is a be-careful-what-youwish-for episode – not because the makeover of a Plymouth back garden is a disaster but more because, well, who hasn’t yearned for a swimming pool straight out of Hollywood? It turns out such pools are a huge drain, both financially and emotionally, and the owners desperately want rid.
WHILE in theory, Boris Johnson’s roadmap for return is a lifeline for the arts, venues and artists alike are once bitten, twice shy.
While the roadmap suggests that theatres may open on May 17 with social distancing, which means that events will be capped at 1,000 attendees or 50 per cent capacity, whichever is lower, this is subject to change.
Performances without social distancing won’t take place until June 21, and venues face the prospect of having to cancel productions at one week’s notice.
Julian Bird, chief executive of the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre (SOLT), says there’s a long way to go.
‘The real route back for the sector will be the step four announcements hopefully enabling full auditoriums from 21 June,’ he says.
‘These dates are still subject to change, however, and even once confirmed it will take time for many of our theatres and productions to get back up and running.
‘While they remain closed and as they return to full operation, we urge the Chancellor to continue with the financial support packages needed for businesses and individuals.’
It has been suggested that the social distancing requirement from May, which is similar to that which was in place in autumn last year, will not allow most venues to break even.
‘It might work for a show with two or three actors, but not for big performances,’ says theatre musician Mark Etherington. Mark has barely worked since March last year and is now waiting for the Frozen musical he is working on to be given the green light to open.
Maureen at Palace Theatre says that some of the shows the venue was planning to host in May will have to be rescheduled as it won’t be possible to stage them in a socially distanced way. ‘Others will work,’ she says.
Inevitably, not all theatre and events companies will want to take the risk of possible closure by opening early. Peter Health, the MD of the Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA), says that the government needs to deal with this by offering state-sponsored insurance and support, so that companies are incentivised to proceed with shows in the current uncertain climate.
‘We urge the government to extend support in the upcoming budget in order that we can stem the current talent drain and ensure that the people and businesses are there to bring the industry back again,’ he says.
‘Those measures include; grants to businesses in the supply chain, support for the self-employed who have had little or nothing for a year, and government-backed insurance for events.’
Without this reassurance and support, he says, few theatres will open.
Despite obvious issues in the sector, many in the arts world are as inspired by spring coming as Johnson with his ‘crocus of hope poking through the frost’. Meanwhile, newly graduated actor Alastair Coughlan, who has had to turn to livestreamed performance and move back in with his parents since coronavirus hit, says he’s hoping for an ‘explosion of creativity’ as restrictions end, and a ‘roaring twenties’ for theatregoers to enjoy.
Also, theatre musician Mark says he has been encouraged by the reactions of those he has met while volunteering at local vaccination clinics in the last few weeks.
‘People genuinely do want to go back to the theatre,’ he says. ‘They are excited to see something new.’