Coronation Street to resume filming
Filming resumes on Coronation Street from next week, but without the older members of the cast or those with underlying health conditions.
This week will see the production team undergoing an induction to learn the new safety protocols in place in the Trafford studios and on the set.
Production will begin next Tuesday, 9 June, with the structure of recording initially set to produce three episodes a week, thus ensuring the flagship soap remains on air in July.
The new safety measures include a fixed cohort system with crew members designated to a specific studio or the exterior lot.
The filming units will be maintaining safe social distancing with cohort managers in place to ensure this takes place.
Cast and crew will have their temperatures checked on a daily basis by an external company, who are specialist medical advisors.
Intensive cleaning and sanitisation of areas where filming is taking place will occur on a daily basis; crew members will use their own assigned equipment; props will be sanitised with the design team working at a safe distance; make-up and costume will work remotely with members of the cast and office staff will continue to work from home to ensure fewer people in the building.
Members of the cast and crew who are over the age of 70 or have an underlying health condition won’t be on set in the initial period of filming. For those members of cast and crew who fall into a Clinically Vulnerable category, an individual risk assessment process will take place, which will enable them to return to work if it is safe for them to do so.
Managing director of continuing drama and head of ITV in the north, John Whiston, has overseen the return to filming alongside head of production for drama and continuing drama, Matt Cleary, series producer Iain MacLeod and production manager, Lee Rayner.
Whiston said: “Getting to this point has taken a huge amount of work and goodwill from a huge number of people, not least our cast and crew. With the peak past, all indications are that the time is right for a return to filming. And with the extensive protocols we have put in place, we have made our workplace as safe as possible.”
MacLeod added: “The whole team at Coronation Street has pulled together to generate an ingenious, intricate set of protocols, to allow filming to restart as safely as humanly possible…
“… Safety remains our number one priority and we are under no illusions about the challenges still facing us and the nation as a whole.”
Photo:ITV.
