OUR PANDEMIC: BBC TWO ANNOUNCES NEW COVID DOCUMENTARY

This new documentary tells the story of the pandemic from a deeply personal standpoint, that of the bereaved whose loved ones died of covid. It will transmit in 2025, five years on.

The film is being made by Forest and directed by Catey Sexton (multi-BAFTA & Grierson nominee and RTS winner) who lost her mother in the first wave. The director’s own story of loss will be told amongst those of others bereaved by covid – and through them, the retrospective and tragic story of the pandemic.

The people they lost will be brought to life using archive and testimony - and their stories interwoven with news footage from the time and the revelations of the public inquiry.

For some this will be the story of their fight for justice - a determination to uncover the truth, to learn lessons and hold those in power to account. For others it will be about piecing together the events that shattered their lives and learning to live with the impact.

For all, it will be the story of a nation’s grief and how we make sense of a world-defining event that has claimed the lives of over 230,000, with the biggest loss of life in our nation’s history since World War II.

Director Catey Sexton says: “It’s important that we document the stories of those we have lost to the pandemic. To ensure their deaths are not in vain or forgotten, and to make sense of what happened, in the hope future lives can be saved. For those who no longer have a voice it’s the least they deserve.”

Our Pandemic (w/t) 1x60 was commissioned by Clare Sillery for BBC Two and iPlayer.