Love and Loss: the Pandemic 5 Years On, review: emotional tribute to the 220,000 forgotten Covid victims
When we talk about the pandemic now, it is more often than not to bemoan the lasting effects of lockdown. The ' ghost children ' who disappeared from education, the missed cancer diagnoses, the employees who got so used to working from home that they won't come back to the office. There is a tendency to look back at Covid as an over-exaggerated threat policed by over-zealous social distancing rules. It's almost easy to forget that so many people died. 'It's like it never existed,' says one bereaved mother in Love and Loss: The Pandemic 5 Years On (BBC One). 'Only those who lost somebody still talk about it.'
This emotional film from director Catey Sexton was simple but effective. It reminded us of those deaths by inviting the bereaved to talk about the relatives they lost. It was intensely personal for Sexton too. Her mother contracted the virus and died in a care home, while Matt Hancock – to what we must hope is his eternal shame – claimed to have thrown a 'protective ring' around them. On her last visit, all Sexton could do was stand outside and wave to her mother through the window.
Sexton chose her case studies to represent a broad range of ages. Some were elderly had underlying health conditions but were still enjoying life before Covid struck. Others appeared fit and healthy. Areema was a 36-year-old nurse; Chloe was a 21-year-old care-home worker. Becky was pregnant with her fourth child. Rudi was a bus driver looking forward to retirement. Bob fell ill after treating the family to meals out during Rishi Sunak's Eat Out to Help Out scheme. 'He was only 53 and he was healthy,' said his widow. 'It seemed inconceivable that this little bug could kill Bob.'
In every case, Sexton opened with the question: 'What were they like?' It was important, for the relatives and also for the viewers, to remind us that behind the statistics lie human stories. Rudi loved snooker and Only Fools and Horses. Areema was the first in her family to get a degree. Bob collected Hawaiian shirts.
Sexton visited the Covid memorial wall opposite Parliament, and I glimpsed a message written on one of the hearts: 'Freya May Mathison, forever sweet sixteen.' It prompted me to look up Freya May on the memorial wall website, where relatives can add photographs and tributes. She is there, with a beaming smile, beside a message from Mummy and Daddy and her younger siblings. There is anguish behind every Covid death statistic.
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