Latest news with #CateySexton
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Love and Loss: The Pandemic 5 Years On review – is it time to wake up from this collective amnesia?
'Remember the pandemic?' In 2025, it's something you might say after spotting a person wearing a face mask on the street, or being temporarily stunned by the sudden recollection of the 2-metre rule, or people hosing down their weekly shop. Of course, few adults will have forgotten about a global pandemic that officially ended only two years ago – not least because, for many, Covid-19 infections still cause significant health issues. But, generally speaking, the world has moved on, and you can see why it might seem that the nation is experiencing collective amnesia about an event that resulted in the highest death toll since the second world war. For some, this feels like a betrayal. Families who lost loved ones to the virus are not just incapable of putting the pandemic out of their minds, they are determined not to. As Covid fades from our lives and our lexicon, they worry that the victims are at risk of being forgotten too. This feature-length programme from documentary-maker Catey Sexton is an attempt to ensure that doesn't happen. Love and Loss: The Pandemic 5 Years On is dedicated to remembering people who died from Covid, including Sexton's mother, who died in a care home. We hear about nurses, carers, bus drivers, young people, elderly people, those with disabilities, fathers and mothers. The film gives bereaved families the chance to pay tribute to their late loved ones, not with overblown praise but by talking about their hobbies, their values and their quirks, and sometimes even gently ribbing them (for their dad dancing or love of a good moan). Sexton's subjects are from every corner of the UK and a variety of backgrounds. Those who died were adults of all ages, and they caught the virus in different ways: some as key workers, some in care homes, some when lockdown was lifted. The point is to show that Covid was, to a certain extent, indiscriminate, but it is also to humanise the statistics we were fed during the height of the pandemic, when most of us were numbed – perhaps necessarily – to the acute individual suffering they represented. Each portrait is full of love, and predictably heartbreaking. Yet they are also insightful. The more we hear about the nature of these deaths, the more we can understand the shades of grief that are particular to the pandemic. Relatives are not only traumatised, but left suspended in a state of disbelief – some due to being denied a funeral service, others because they could not be at their loved one's side when they died. Bound up with the enduring shock is a sense of guilt and regret – misplaced, of course, but so understandable. Some of this has to do with listening to medical advice: when the parents of 21-year-old Chloe were told by paramedics not to worry about her condition because young people weren't dying of the virus at that time, they felt reassured. She died the same day. When Femi caught the virus, his GP told him to stay at home. He died on the sofa. When his daughter talks about his death, she addresses him directly: 'I'm really sorry, Dad, I really wish that we did more.' The idea that anyone blames themselves for these tragedies – especially considering that this was a time when our freedoms were almost completely curtailed – is extraordinarily sad. Blaming the state might be a more rational option. The final stretch of the programme briefly covers the continuing inquiry into the country's handling of the pandemic. Although detailing the specific mistakes and compromises made by the government is largely outside this documentary's remit, it does explain how important it is for the bereaved to dredge meaning from the mess. Sexton admits that her search for answers about why so many died in care homes is a coping mechanism. For others, trying to protect the UK from another botched response to a future pandemic gives them purpose amid such senseless loss. Occasionally, this programme recounts the pandemic narrative in an over simplistic way, but Sexton is not aiming to provide a rigorous history. Instead, she has focused on capturing an emotional reality. For most of us, the pandemic was like a bad dream from which we have woken. But not for these families. At one point, a bereaved father says he wishes he could go back in time and warn people about Covid. It is magical thinking about a surreal period in our history that, as this programme evocatively shows, has left so many permanent scars. Love and Loss: The Pandemic 5 Years On aired on BBC One and is on iPlayer now
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: a painful but lovely film about the victims of the pandemic
8.30pm, BBC One'It feels like we're in a rush to forget and move on,' says film-maker Catey Sexton, in her feature documentary marking five years since the Covid-19 outbreak. But, as family members and friends of the more than 230,000 people who died tell her, life will never be the same again. Sexton's own mother lost her life to the virus, and she wants to hear about the experiences of other people behind the numbers in a moving, lovely but heart-rending testimony. Hollie Richardson 7pm, BBC Three A bold new comedy drama for a young adult audience, based on Alex Wheatle's books. It follows Lemar 'Liccle Bit' Jackson and his mates on the Crongton estate, with the actors cast after a social media callout for underrepresented talent. Its mix of mature jokes and cartoon animated scenes makes for something that feels unique. HR 8pm, BBC TwoWorld chess champion Magnus Carlsen (who has memorised more than 10,000 games) sets this week's first challenge about memory. Then it's time for team chess – it's been smiles and hugs so far, so will this cause some divisions? But they must work together to avoid being the first person to be eliminated. HR 8pm, BBC OneAll agree the NHS is in critical condition, but when it comes to a course of treatment, opinions vary as widely as ambulance response times. Alison Holt speaks to frontline staff about how to deliver better care. Can the current reforms succeed where so many previous attempts have failed? Ellen E Jones 8pm, Channel 4Full-time carers Kellie and Dom Evans have been struggling to provide healthy, nutritious meals for their children, who have additional needs. Enter Suzanne Mulholland, AKA the Batch Lady, a family-cooking expert and 'time-saving guru'. Can she and Joe Swash help uncomplicate their lives? (Spoiler alert: yes.) Ali Catterall 9pm, Sky AtlanticThe Ratliff men are in crisis in Mike White's savage Thai resort satire. Timothy (Jason Isaacs) is agonising over his financial ruin while his two sons deal with throbbing hangovers after an uninhibited bacchanal. And luckless security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) vows to reclaim his stolen pistol. Graeme Virtue Submarine (Richard Ayoade, 2010), 1.50am, Film4 Ayoade's directorial debut is as quirky and unexpectedly touching as you'd expect from the comic actor. It's a coming-of-age story with twin angles: 15-year-old, duffel-coated dreamer Oliver (Craig Roberts) experiences first love with the unforgiving Jordana (Yasmin Paige), while coming to understand the very middle-class relationship of his parents Lloyd and Jill (Noah Taylor and Sally Hawkins). Paddy Considine pops up with a terrific cameo as a stage psychic, an old flame of Jill's. Simon Wardell
