Love And Loss: The Pandemic 5 Years On | Preview (BBC One)

This deeply personal film tells the story of those who have lost loved ones to Covid-19 in the pandemic. Award-winning director Catey Sexton, whose mother died in a care home, tells her story of loss alongside 12 other families across the UK, who give heart-rending accounts of their own.

The pandemic claimed the lives of over 220,000, the biggest loss of life in the country since World War II, but Catey says, ‘it feels like we are in a rush to forget and move on’. Each story captures a moment in time in the pandemic and remembers the life of each person.

Starting in Liverpool, Catey meets the family of Richie, an avid Liverpool fan, who went to the Champions League match on 11 March 2020 when Liverpool hosted the game with Atletico Madrid. This was the same day the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic. Each story is interwoven with archive material from the time, charting shared experiences of life in lockdown.

It was only a few days before the first national lockdown that 21-year-old Chloe became the youngest person to die without any underlying health conditions. Catey meets the families of some of the millions of key workers who kept the country going, such as Rodrick, whose dad, Rudy, was a London bus driver for 30 years, and Kazeema, a healthcare worker in Walsall, who speaks of working on the ward with her 36-year-old sister Areema, one of the first nurses to die. Mark from Glasgow worked in a factory providing much needed soap. His family lovingly speaks of his love of life and his dad dancing.

A lot has changed in Ellis’s life since the pandemic. He now performs as a drag queen, and his name, Queera Lynn, is inspired by his grandfather. Catey then tells her own story about her mother, who was in a care home in Durham and tested positive. She reads excerpts from a diary written at the time. After her mum dies, she will join a group of bereaved families who campaign for the public inquiry in the hope that lessons will be learnt.

Catey meets Lobby and his family in his father Femi’s allotment, a place he loved. Femi stayed away from hospital and followed the advice from 111, but he later died in the family living room. Lobby explains how the loss of his dad has affected his life and changed him as a person. Determined to ensure future lives are saved, Lobby begins campaigning for change.

As the country slowly opened after lockdown, the bereaved recall how they were all desperate for some normality. The government was keen to support restaurants that suffered in the pandemic. Amanda recounts a trip with her husband Bob, whom she describes as a ‘bon viveur’, while taking advantage of the Eat Out to Help Out government scheme. But the family paid a high price for a small taste of normal life.

The second wave arrives, and Tracey tells how her pregnant daughter Becky is an NHS hero. When Covid-19 returned, she was terrified of getting the virus but returned to work to make up her maternity pay. Becky caught the virus, which tragically changed the lives of her daughters and Tracey.

After a short second lockdown in England, the virus spread rapidly, and Wales had their highest cases yet. Policeman Paul believes he caught the virus at work and passed it onto his family - his wife Karen and his 25-year-old daughter Lauren. Karen says that is the moment when life changed for them.

England goes into lockdown for the third time, but hope is on the horizon as the vaccine begins rolling out. Jenny’s twin brother John loves the outdoors. He is changed by the lockdowns and starts to believe Covid-19 isn’t real. Despite being very fit and in his forties, the virus proves too much. In Northern Ireland, Lauren feels lucky her uncle Raymond, who has Down’s syndrome, has so far escaped the virus. When he is later admitted to hospital, the family are unable to advocate for him, something they have done his whole life.

As an expression of grief, Catey, along with other bereaved, painted hearts on a wall opposite the Houses of Parliament to acknowledge all those lost. Everyone has their own way of dealing with their loss.

Some need answers from the public inquiry, others are trying to accept what happened, and for some, it is too painful to remember that time. But for all, they want their loved ones to be remembered and for their deaths not to be in vain.

Love And Loss: The Pandemic, Five Years On airs Monday 24th March at 8:30pm on BBC One.