First Dates Manchester will look a little different when it makes its arrival to Channel 4 next week, as it was filmed while the country was in lockdown.
On top of the brand new series being the first chapter to take place outside the usual London restaurant, it’ll be the first to have been captured during a pandemic.
Bosses took drastic measures to make sure filming could go ahead, including closing down the venue to the public, meaning that random diners tucking into a lamb cutlet in the background will no longer be a thing.
We sat down (virtually, of course) with the show’s three new members of staff, Daniella, David and Fiona, to talk about how the show was able to go ahead in the face of coronavirus.
‘We filmed in March and September,’ Daniella told us. ‘There was some filming we did in lockdown but we followed all of the procedures and everyone had Covid tests.
‘Everything has been really safe.’
David added: ‘When we’re filming, we are a closed set, which means we’re not open to the general public during filming.
‘We followed strict protocols in order to give some semblance of normality and make it safe for us to film. We were able to carry on as “normal” with the strict procedures in place.’
‘No one was allowed in the restaurant if they didn’t have a negative result,’ Fiona pointed out.
The rigid rules around safety meant that the daters could enjoy their dates as though they were in normal circumstances.
First Dates returns Tuesday at 10pm on Channel 4.
Credit: Original article published here.The post First Dates Manchester staff reveal strict rules allowing filming in lockdown appeared on My Celebrity Life.