I really struggled to watch the episodes of taskmaster from that time. The studio segments just felt so weird compared to the before times.
Never even thought about this.
One day someones gonna be watching one of these shows with absolutely no idea why they’re sat far apart for a season.
They deffo crossed the line in that last pic. Ma Gran could be deed because of them! Its ok tho, she’s been deed for years.
I always found it interesting at the time that there seemed to be a unilateral decision not to mention the pandemic despite the total weirdness of the programmes, especially as they’re often the sort of shows that get rinsed and repeated on daytime (Escape to the Country, Bargain Hunt etc).
Are you expecting them to just stop airing anything filmed in 2020/2021? It’d be weird to pretend that year never happened.
This social distancing ruined my ‘ Come Dine With Me’ daily dose……….haven’t watched it in years?
Is the usual format back?
How the fuck did they serve the food???
What’s weird is that there’s tv shows about Covid, and tv shows filmed during Covid with the weird distances, but they’re either about Covid itself or they pretend it’s not there.
As an example, Patrick Hamilton wrote books during, and set during, the war. The war is mentioned, the effects of the war provide a lot about the setting, but the war isn’t the subject, they’re not WWII novels, they’re novels where the things are happening whilst the war is going on.
I’ve not seen that yet about Covid.
My favorite is the last season of Line of Duty where they keep agreeing to have conversations outside for no reason
Makes you remember the absolutely ridiculous rules that were advised, shit show
A time forgotten, where victors in the Dragon’s Den would celebrate their newfound business partnership via an air-high-five with their Dragon of choice.
Covid did not kill me, ’twas the cringe that came close.
The covid-era Bargain Hunt episodes are wild.
The experts needing to stand 2m away, so they can’t tell if it’s a 19th century solid silver teaspoon, or one bought for 99p from Asda last week.
Then the auction with about 6 people in the room and roughly half that online, and they’re surprised said spoon bought for £100 only sells for a fiver.
And of course “obviously we’re not in the sale room” without acknowledging why.
not uk tv, but on hot ones, they still sit a ridiculous distance apart and i find it so jarring
Richard Osman’s House of Games still has the celebs sitting further apart!
I’ve noticed that in older series of House of Games the contestants feel almost *uncomfortably* close together. Post Covid they’re not quite as close as they used to be, but not as distant as they were during Covid. It almost feels like Covid has given us a sense that maybe we don’t need to be quite so close together on games shows.
I feel for those without young kids. They missed out on the absolute train wreck that is the Covid episodes of Mr Maker’s Arty Party.
hilarious to think they would’ve been milling around set completely normally, but then when cameras turned on they all had to spread out exactly 6ft apart
It was such a stupid time – I worked in TV Production until 2022 and I kept saying it was stupid for us to refuse to show masks or acknowledge the pandemic but do all these other steps. Those in charge felt this was the least weird option. So bonkers
Finally saw an episode of catchphrase without the plexiglass between the contestants yesterday. I was still way better than anyone on the show though
Whoever realised that you could have everyone arranged in a line but distanced and the frame the shot down the line was who was called the messiah.
Realistically probably by the end of this year. A lot of cheap to make shows are filmed in batch. So they might film anywhere from 20-50 shows over a few months then release them in series over a few years.
You also get a lot of repeats that to you may be first time viewing so it seems like it’s going on longer
One of the reasons I love Dropout is that when they had to shift the way they recorded their new content they made it very clear it was due to COVID and adapted to the new format instead of trying to maintain the old one with weird spacing or restrictions. Make Some Noise was really fun over Zoom
I caught this the other night and assumed it was a new episode. I thought Shiv just had a comically large dining table until I saw it again tonight and realised they were in a different house 🤣🤣
Remember all the ‘done on an iPhone’ adverts, too?
*This lot was part of a remote auction with bids taking place online.*
probably repeats?
One of the ones that ended up doing this sort of thing the best was Battlebots – as a live sporting event, they’d usually have an audience, but what they did this time was have the other competing teams in to spectate in distanced “opera boxes” so it still looked like a sport crowd.
Then the style of arena, the Battlebox, is a big cube so they were able to have the referees at each corner and communicate through headsets/microphones and stuff, and there was speakers to communicate with the teams.
There was the usual see through polycarb panels separating the teams when they’re competing, and the judges/commentators, and the masks honestly weren’t really that intrusive or anything, but it felt really natural (up until the most recent season, season 7, that season of Battlebots was my favourite overall).
They did a whole event, plus bonus side event, and didn’t get a single case the whole time, it was honestly a triumph of COVID protocols.
I remember rewatching Taskmaster during the pandemic and feeling like everyone was sat so close together. It warped our minds so much.
Maybe they just can’t stand each other.
There has been a large increase in Covid cases this summer
I mean, what they should really do, is stand about a mile apart, then turn off all the cameras.
Call The Midwife suddenly had a lot of mask wearing, which was fine and made some sense in universe, but then they dropped the masks a couple of series on, and it made it look weirder.
It’s not comical is **your** family member is dead
As someone who has the joy of working in the UK TV industry, I can say it’s probably not until the end of this year that we’ll get through it all.
Channel 4 weren’t commissioning any new projects this year as they had so much backed up from 2020-2023 that they could save money just airing loads of that stuff. Only a small amount being made for C4 this year, and most of it is long running series rather than new.
Edit: formatting
The flip side is soaps like Neighbours, where people stand very close to each other in a room to have a conversation, just so the camera can cover it as a two shot.
I think the last time I watched Real Housewives of Cheshire was when they filmed at the beginning of the pandemic. There was a vow renewal or something where everybody was standing around exactly like this during the cocktail hour.
I did enjoy The Graham Norton Show during this time, though.
I’ve noticed it too, especially when I end up watching Impossible with my dad. I found the QI episodes during that period really good, the guests weren’t interrupted by laughter at every joke, and it was nice to see them all riffing more quickly and freely, and enjoying it more.
The sitcom Superstore embraced the COVID rules in its plotlines as well as how people would not be adhering to them. It will be nostalgic to watch reruns of that particular series.
feels like everyone’s got an imaginary friend next to them lol
39 comments
I really struggled to watch the episodes of taskmaster from that time. The studio segments just felt so weird compared to the before times.
Never even thought about this.
One day someones gonna be watching one of these shows with absolutely no idea why they’re sat far apart for a season.
They deffo crossed the line in that last pic. Ma Gran could be deed because of them! Its ok tho, she’s been deed for years.
I always found it interesting at the time that there seemed to be a unilateral decision not to mention the pandemic despite the total weirdness of the programmes, especially as they’re often the sort of shows that get rinsed and repeated on daytime (Escape to the Country, Bargain Hunt etc).
Are you expecting them to just stop airing anything filmed in 2020/2021? It’d be weird to pretend that year never happened.
This social distancing ruined my ‘ Come Dine With Me’ daily dose……….haven’t watched it in years?
Is the usual format back?
How the fuck did they serve the food???
What’s weird is that there’s tv shows about Covid, and tv shows filmed during Covid with the weird distances, but they’re either about Covid itself or they pretend it’s not there.
As an example, Patrick Hamilton wrote books during, and set during, the war. The war is mentioned, the effects of the war provide a lot about the setting, but the war isn’t the subject, they’re not WWII novels, they’re novels where the things are happening whilst the war is going on.
I’ve not seen that yet about Covid.
My favorite is the last season of Line of Duty where they keep agreeing to have conversations outside for no reason
Makes you remember the absolutely ridiculous rules that were advised, shit show
A time forgotten, where victors in the Dragon’s Den would celebrate their newfound business partnership via an air-high-five with their Dragon of choice.
Covid did not kill me, ’twas the cringe that came close.
The covid-era Bargain Hunt episodes are wild.
The experts needing to stand 2m away, so they can’t tell if it’s a 19th century solid silver teaspoon, or one bought for 99p from Asda last week.
Then the auction with about 6 people in the room and roughly half that online, and they’re surprised said spoon bought for £100 only sells for a fiver.
And of course “obviously we’re not in the sale room” without acknowledging why.
not uk tv, but on hot ones, they still sit a ridiculous distance apart and i find it so jarring
Richard Osman’s House of Games still has the celebs sitting further apart!
I’ve noticed that in older series of House of Games the contestants feel almost *uncomfortably* close together. Post Covid they’re not quite as close as they used to be, but not as distant as they were during Covid. It almost feels like Covid has given us a sense that maybe we don’t need to be quite so close together on games shows.
I feel for those without young kids. They missed out on the absolute train wreck that is the Covid episodes of Mr Maker’s Arty Party.
hilarious to think they would’ve been milling around set completely normally, but then when cameras turned on they all had to spread out exactly 6ft apart
It was such a stupid time – I worked in TV Production until 2022 and I kept saying it was stupid for us to refuse to show masks or acknowledge the pandemic but do all these other steps. Those in charge felt this was the least weird option. So bonkers
Finally saw an episode of catchphrase without the plexiglass between the contestants yesterday. I was still way better than anyone on the show though
Whoever realised that you could have everyone arranged in a line but distanced and the frame the shot down the line was who was called the messiah.
Realistically probably by the end of this year. A lot of cheap to make shows are filmed in batch. So they might film anywhere from 20-50 shows over a few months then release them in series over a few years.
You also get a lot of repeats that to you may be first time viewing so it seems like it’s going on longer
One of the reasons I love Dropout is that when they had to shift the way they recorded their new content they made it very clear it was due to COVID and adapted to the new format instead of trying to maintain the old one with weird spacing or restrictions. Make Some Noise was really fun over Zoom
I caught this the other night and assumed it was a new episode. I thought Shiv just had a comically large dining table until I saw it again tonight and realised they were in a different house 🤣🤣
Remember all the ‘done on an iPhone’ adverts, too?
*This lot was part of a remote auction with bids taking place online.*
probably repeats?
One of the ones that ended up doing this sort of thing the best was Battlebots – as a live sporting event, they’d usually have an audience, but what they did this time was have the other competing teams in to spectate in distanced “opera boxes” so it still looked like a sport crowd.
Then the style of arena, the Battlebox, is a big cube so they were able to have the referees at each corner and communicate through headsets/microphones and stuff, and there was speakers to communicate with the teams.
There was the usual see through polycarb panels separating the teams when they’re competing, and the judges/commentators, and the masks honestly weren’t really that intrusive or anything, but it felt really natural (up until the most recent season, season 7, that season of Battlebots was my favourite overall).
They did a whole event, plus bonus side event, and didn’t get a single case the whole time, it was honestly a triumph of COVID protocols.
I remember rewatching Taskmaster during the pandemic and feeling like everyone was sat so close together. It warped our minds so much.
Maybe they just can’t stand each other.
There has been a large increase in Covid cases this summer
I mean, what they should really do, is stand about a mile apart, then turn off all the cameras.
Call The Midwife suddenly had a lot of mask wearing, which was fine and made some sense in universe, but then they dropped the masks a couple of series on, and it made it look weirder.
It’s not comical is **your** family member is dead
As someone who has the joy of working in the UK TV industry, I can say it’s probably not until the end of this year that we’ll get through it all.
Channel 4 weren’t commissioning any new projects this year as they had so much backed up from 2020-2023 that they could save money just airing loads of that stuff. Only a small amount being made for C4 this year, and most of it is long running series rather than new.
Edit: formatting
The flip side is soaps like Neighbours, where people stand very close to each other in a room to have a conversation, just so the camera can cover it as a two shot.
I think the last time I watched Real Housewives of Cheshire was when they filmed at the beginning of the pandemic. There was a vow renewal or something where everybody was standing around exactly like this during the cocktail hour.
I did enjoy The Graham Norton Show during this time, though.
I’ve noticed it too, especially when I end up watching Impossible with my dad. I found the QI episodes during that period really good, the guests weren’t interrupted by laughter at every joke, and it was nice to see them all riffing more quickly and freely, and enjoying it more.
The sitcom Superstore embraced the COVID rules in its plotlines as well as how people would not be adhering to them. It will be nostalgic to watch reruns of that particular series.
feels like everyone’s got an imaginary friend next to them lol