Covid won’t stop us!

EVEN though it was entirely inevitable, it still feels pretty risky to do a sitcom about a family coping with Covid-19 and everything that 2020 has brought us.

Would we really want to watch it back, and be reminded of all the ways this time has been so hard – taking its toll on our relationships and finances, affecting pretty much every aspect of normal life?

And even more so would we want to watch it over Christmas, when we can’t be with friends and family, and when it’s all very much far from over?

Well, thankfully, this new one-off from Plebs creator Tom Basden hits the notes just right, being funny, familiar and surprisingly moving.

It helps that there’s a brilliant cast: Katherine Parkinson and Jim Howick play married couple Rachel and Paul Jessop, parents to two teenagers, with Alison Steadman as grandmother

Sue, who were forced to cancel their holiday of a lifetime but who are still determined to take a family trip together, even if that means Margate in December.

It’s all filmed by their youngest son, and features flashbacks to a life we can probably all recognise: NHS clapping (and neighbourhood bitching), rows about social distancing and bubbles, online learning and living, and relationships suffering from all that time together.

Maybe it’s that finally reaching the end of 2020 has made us emotional, but the ending genuinely brought a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye.