I’m typing this on Friday May 5th 2023, the day before The King’s coronation.
Tomorrow the nation – or at least a large part of it – will celebrate the historic event. But, to be honest, it feels that things are a little muted. I think a big part of that is that it turns out the British people’s much touted admiration, even love, for the monarchy was actually admiration and love for The Queen. And The Queen has gone.
Now, while we have no say in all the pomp and ceremony, we do have a say in what it means to us. And indifference is definitely an underlying emotion for many.
Maybe The Pandemic works in the same way.
We had no say in what happened, but we do have a say in what it means to us.
To give ourselves the best chance of understanding, and interpreting the thing that engulfed us, we need to remember. And we have to be strong enough to look directly at Covid 19, and acknowledge the horror.
History isn’t just Kings and crowns. History is also everyday life.
We all lived through something cataclysmic in 2020. Except we didn’t all live through it, did we? And that’s the horror, isn’t it. The virus killed people before they would have otherwise died. So the loss was, is, real.
If you lost people you loved, people you knew, all I can offer you is love.
And support. And the hope that you have reached a place of peace with it all.
One group of people I’d like to offer my love, support and total gratitude to is the staff of the NHS. The doctors, the nurses, the support workers. You didn’t walk through the Valley of The Shadow of Death, you walked into it, and stayed, and worked. Because that was your job. Because that was who you were.
Thank you.
But ‘Thank you’ doesn’t really cover it, does it.
Maybe this next film goes some way to repaying the debt I think we all owe you. It was written at the time drawing on reports in newspapers, and on documentaries filmed in hospitals on the front line.
It is not an easy watch.
But as a record of the state of fear, and the emotional strain, that was in hospitals at the time, I think it is pretty accurate. And that might even make it an important piece of work.
And in the unlikely event that anyone from the Government is reading this, please watch this film, then go and tell the nurses and doctors you’re in dispute with that they can’t have the pay raise they’re asking for.
It was only three years ago. That’s not even history, that’s memory.
And you can’t pay your bills with a round of applause.
The film features the wonderful Gemma Ryan. She’s a woman with more reasons than most to be grateful for the NHS. And she’s a woman I admire greatly.
Coming next week: The Last Film.
But before that here’s ‘Choices’ featuring Gemma Ryan.