I'd thought about how I was going to mark the first lockdown and I tried to write this a couple of times, but I couldn't piece anything together properly.
So I've decided to look at the last year in a different way, and talk about some of the things that got me through the last year.
(Side note - thanks to my internet theatre buddy Kirsty who did this and whose format I have absolutely stolen).
Over the last 12 months (once my brain had gotten over the initial 4 month shock) I've watched a ridiculous amount of TV, listened to an absurd amount of podcasts, read a few books (although I wish I'd read more) and seen some pretty special theatre.
Here's a look at the things that have gotten me though.
Here's a look at the things that have gotten me though.
TV & Film
The first thing to talk about, obviously, is the final series of Schitts Creek. Whilst we didn't get it on Netflix till mid-June, I found it online early and devoured it in two sittings. A perfect way to round off the perfect sitcom, letting the characters fully flourish in their own ways, and finally get on with their own lives. After that was Ryan Murphy's Hollywood, which (like most Ryan Murphy TV) goes massively off the rails in the middle, but pulls it back for the end.
Then I bought a TV, and I charged my way through the whole of every catch up service. Terrible trash like Selling Sunset, The Job Lot and the truly diabolical Emily In Paris were interspersed with amazing bits of TV like The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens and His Dark Materials. We were treated to the latest installemt of The Crown, which put Britain's finest front and centre in one of the biggest show in the world, and Russell T Davies devastated the world with It's A Sin.
Then I bought a TV, and I charged my way through the whole of every catch up service. Terrible trash like Selling Sunset, The Job Lot and the truly diabolical Emily In Paris were interspersed with amazing bits of TV like The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens and His Dark Materials. We were treated to the latest installemt of The Crown, which put Britain's finest front and centre in one of the biggest show in the world, and Russell T Davies devastated the world with It's A Sin.
This was finally the moment in my life where I committed myself to the thing that is now the love of my life: Greys Anatomy.
I'd always meant to do it, but when you find that they're already 15 seasons in, you go "can I really watch 330 episodes of this just to catch up?" But as we entered the second lockdown I did, and over the course of the next few months found a group of people I love like my own family, and I went on a journey. I laughed, I cried and most of all I cared about this wonderful group of humans. (I would walk in front of a bus for Cristina Yang or Miranda Bailey and that's unlikely to change any time soon...)
I'd always meant to do it, but when you find that they're already 15 seasons in, you go "can I really watch 330 episodes of this just to catch up?" But as we entered the second lockdown I did, and over the course of the next few months found a group of people I love like my own family, and I went on a journey. I laughed, I cried and most of all I cared about this wonderful group of humans. (I would walk in front of a bus for Cristina Yang or Miranda Bailey and that's unlikely to change any time soon...)
Books
I realised very early on that books were unlikely to be an easy thing for me as I couldn't get my brain to really concentrate for more than 15 minutes! But I've managed a few books since I began to use Audible.
Balancing Acts by Nick Hytner - it's a truly luscious look at Nick's time helming the greatest theatre in the world (and one of the things I have missed most for the last year.) Going right back to the start of his reign as Artistic Director of the National Theatre, and talking in detail about his early productions there, and then his 'big 4' (Curious Incident, War Horse, History Boys and His Dark Materials - two directed by him, and the other two directed by the person who should become the first female Artistic Director of the National: Marianne Elliott.)
Balancing Acts by Nick Hytner - it's a truly luscious look at Nick's time helming the greatest theatre in the world (and one of the things I have missed most for the last year.) Going right back to the start of his reign as Artistic Director of the National Theatre, and talking in detail about his early productions there, and then his 'big 4' (Curious Incident, War Horse, History Boys and His Dark Materials - two directed by him, and the other two directed by the person who should become the first female Artistic Director of the National: Marianne Elliott.)
How To Stop Time by Matt Haig - I'd had this on my Kindle for a while, and over the course of a month managed to read it whilst spending furloughed afternoons at Blenheim Palace.
A man ages slower than everyone else: he appears to be in his fifties, but is actually hundreds of years old, desperately searching for the daughter that has never met. It's an easy read, with a lovely heartfelt story at the end of it.
A man ages slower than everyone else: he appears to be in his fifties, but is actually hundreds of years old, desperately searching for the daughter that has never met. It's an easy read, with a lovely heartfelt story at the end of it.
Quite by Claudia Winkleman - it's as joyful, humourous and heartfelt as you'd expect a book from Claudia to be. She gives her views on everything, varying from her fringe, The Tube and a lot about boys. I inhaled the audiobook (read by Winkleman) in two days.
How To Be Champion by Sarah Millican - I'm loving autobiographies at the moment (I'm currently reading Emily Maitlis') and Millican's is just fucking joyful (as I told her on Instagram!) It's honest way of doing a biography whilst sort of acting as a self-help book. Again, read (Well, listened to) it in two days.
Podcasts
My absolute saving grace throughout all of this.
Without podcasts I'm honestly not sure I'd have got through until now, and that not an exaggeration.
Without podcasts I'm honestly not sure I'd have got through until now, and that not an exaggeration.
There have been so many that, on a weekly basis, have kept my brain just about ticking over. The pandemic gave us the return of Smashed, where we finally saw Ally and Olly get drunk and review S2 of Smash through to Ivy Lynn winning her Tony. Every Musical Ever returned after an obscene hiatus and began working their way through the catalogue with artists and creatives giving their opinions on their favourite shows. There are your usual weekly podcasts that have continued to work in isolation, with Off Menu, David Tennant Does A Podcast With... and Table Manners continuing to be brilliant tonics for the outside world.
Americast worked tirelessly to enable the UK population to fully understand 2020 in American politics, and meant my investment in the election was unlike any I've ever had (I watched CNN for five days...)
Americast worked tirelessly to enable the UK population to fully understand 2020 in American politics, and meant my investment in the election was unlike any I've ever had (I watched CNN for five days...)
The spectacular talents of Oh God What Now (formerly Remainiacs) and The Bunker continued to call out the government bullshit from the second we locked down and crashed out of the EU in January.
But then there were two 'stagey' podcasts that I couldn't do without.
Backstage With offers in-depth interview with performers and creatives in the theatre industry, and over the last year has reached further than they likely would have managed in person to get great chats. Asking the question that hardcore fans would want answered, it's a must for all theatre fans.
And then, along came a podcast that is the inside of my teenage brains.
Two young 20-somethings, who bonded over their love of Wicked and created Sentimental Men. Sitting down with Broadway Green Girls, they asked questions only true Wicked fangirls could ask, and got information even I, in my 10 years of Wicked fandom hadn't managed to get.
Every week for over 5 months, these boys gave us over an hour of content about the show (and the industry) that we all missed so much.
Theatre
And then, there was the thing I love the most. The thing that is still taking too much time to get back to, but the thing that we were given back for a small period of last year.
Lockdown saw theatre-makers turn to online, with the Old Vic reproducing Lungs with Claire Foy and Matt Smith to great acclaim, and a super 'in isolation' production of Songs For A New World, which reflected on the outside world...
In August, almost five months since we went into lockdown as a country, I sat in the pouring rain with some of my closest friends, to watch some of my favourite people do one of the best shows. A Little Night Music was an exceptional display of life, of love, and of remembrance for what we had gone through, continue to go through, and what we lost as a result.
At the end of a week of 'in camera' performances, I went back to Bristol, where I spent a couple of weekends at the start of 2020. Armed with two close friends, and ready to cry some tears at a truly magical piece of theatre, we descended on the Bristol Old Vic, for one final in person performance of Romantics Anonymous. Go read my review of that day, and about what that show means to me.
The rest of the year was remarkably busy, considering theatres were closed for five weeks, but it saw (for me anyway) the definitive production of The Last Five Years at Southwark Playhouse, areturn visit to the Queens of Six, the most ridiculous line up of West End and Broadway talent inthe Kings of Broadway, cabaret concerts from Jenna Russell, Jodie Jacobs and Anna-Jane Casey, and the most fun I've ever had at the theatre with Pantoland at the Palladium
Friends
Finally, a short piece about my wonderful friends this year.
I will try not to be too soppy, but I wouldn't have made it through without a lot of you.
From the endless quizzes, the film nights, the long phone chats, the coffee mornings, the 'just being there' and the mindless chatter about nothing.
Thank you.
Just thank you.
Just thank you.
(A special thanks to the Grown Ups - there will come a point when I never want to do a quiz again, but until then you're stuck with me being Richard Osman on a Sunday afternoon xxx)
When I see you all I will actually hug you until I break you (and probably cry a lot when doing it)
