It may be two and a half years since the UK started feeling the impact of Covid-19, but the pandemic’s after-effects on society persist. The UK is in the middle of an inflation crisis caused in part by the lockdowns, and we have a new prime minister after a succession of scandals brought down the last one. So when does “current affairs” become “history”? And when it comes to turning the recent past into fictionalised drama, how soon is too soon?
This is the question that stalks This England, a six-part miniseries that tells the story of the first phase of the coronavirus outbreak. Due to air on Sky Atlantic at the end of this month, it is directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson. Winterbottom told me he was approached about the project in June 2020 – just as Britain was coming out of the first lockdown. Speaking via Zoom from an airy room of his house in London, the director explains his rationale for wanting to capture this moment now.
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