Keep it safe, keep it simple
ITV
Coronation Street
U
nprecedented times demand creative thinking. An RTS webinar heard that shows as different as ITV’s Coronation Street, the BBC’s Top Gear and Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch have all learnt how to adapt their production routines to keep cast and crew safe in the age of Covid-19. The so-called pope of soap, John Whiston, managing director of continuing drama at ITV Studios, explained how Coronation Street and Emmerdale have streamlined their filming schedules. In the process, they have complied with Government-approved producers’ guidelines on social distancing and hygiene protocols. Four key phrases have been introduced: “Keep your distance”, “Keep in groups”, “Keep it simple” and “Keep away”. Film units are kept in their own studio spaces, avoiding shared areas. “The only people who move around are the actors,” said Whiston. The number of people involved in filming is kept to a minimum. Camera
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The RTS takes a detailed look at the new working methods that have got programmes back into production assistants and other crew members’ assistants are banned; cast members aged 70 or over and children (because they come with tutors and chaperones) are excluded from the soaps’ storylines. Location filming is out. If a court room is needed for a plot, the soaps’ carpenters can make one. As Corrie gears up for its 60th anniversary in December, expect fewer pyrotechnics than usual for an anniversary special. “Normally, we blow everything up,” said Whiston. “We will be doing something, but it won’t be quite on the scale that audiences are used to.” Scripts (paper scripts are no longer allowed on set) have been simplified. Rather than the normal 21 scenes per episode, 16 or 17 is the new norm. “We
can no longer have half the cast fighting at a wedding. We’ve been reduced to the essence of soaps – fantastic scripts and great performances,” stressed Whiston. As for sex, a steamy romp is left to the imagination. “A lot has to be done with smouldering eyes rather than touching,” said the executive. He hoped that Corrie would be back to its full six episodes per week by autumn. For Top Gear, a show famous for its spectacular stunts filmed in exotic climes, executive producer Clare Pizey told the RTS that Bolton was the new Bogotá. Half of the footage – including sequences filmed overseas – for the next series of Top Gear was already in the can before lockdown. But filming had to resume in the UK. “It’s a huge change that we can no longer go abroad,” admitted Pizey. “But, sometimes, when you forced into a constraint, it makes you think differently. One of the films we’re doing is a direct result of having to think more creatively.” Following a difficult patch, critics
