What You Need To Know

Marcus Brigstocke has become a household name as a comedian - so what has life been like for the TV star now he’s only able to broadcast from his own home? He spoke to Kylie Pentelow about the challenges he and others have been facing in lockdown and whether it’s right to joke about the coronavirus. Plus he explains how a new Drive-In Club venture will get people out to see live stand-ups again, f...

“You’ve got my cousins just crying and you can’t do anything.” In this emotional extended edition of the podcast, Charlene White tells fellow ITV News Presenter Julie Etchingham how hard it was to attend a socially-distanced funeral. Lockdown measures have changed how we pay our respects. Funeral mourners are limited to just a handful of close family members and passing a tissue to a teary relativ...

The introduction of lockdown impacted so many people’s working lives. For Stephen Laughton it stopped short his career’s ambition. The playwright had been working hand to mouth before finally seeing one of his plays, One Jewish Boy, open to packed audiences and rave reviews in London’s West End. Then a week later the introduction of lockdown shut theatres, blocked crowds and left his play with no...

“You’ll have some people celebrating and being thrilled. You’ll have other people really terrified of making those first steps into the communities they once felt completely at peace within.” So says TV presenter and psychologist Emma Kenny on how different people are likely to respond to the easing of lockdown measures. She has timely advice for those suffering from ‘return anxiety’ as things in...

Lockdown has drastically changed the way we live our lives. While the dramatic restrictions have hindered so many freedoms, some have found benefits from the simplification of their daily lives. Could it be that once the lockdown is over, people will look to retain some elements of this newfound simpler form of living? Or will the pace of 'normal' life overrun our best intentions? In this episode,...

Are you desperate for a haircut? The wait could soon be over with salons and hairdressers hopeful of reopening by summer. Hairdressers to the stars George Northwood explains to Kylie Pentelow how salons like his are taking steps to reopen safely, why he’s expecting to deal with some drastic DIY cuts and why lockdown has made him rethink what getting a haircut means to people. George - whose client...

Despite the strict stay-at-home restrictions at the start of lockdown, some brave people continued to move home - often through forced circumstances. Mary Nightingale speaks to Monica Menniti who was stuck living with her ex-fiancé when lockdown started and had an anything-but-ideal experience when she moved into a studio flat in London which she'd only seen through a virtual viewing. Miles Shipsi...

ITV News Presenter Kylie Pentelow speaks to British swimming legend Duncan Goodhew on the future of the nation’s favourite form of exercise. “It’s the longest time I’ve been out of the water. It’s not been easy,” he admits as he and other avid swimmers endure a third month of pools being shut across the UK with no return date in sight. The Olympic golden boy at Moscow 1980 is now president of the...

Coronavirus: Q&A, which airs on ITV every Monday night, puts your questions to key public figures involved in making the big decisions affecting our lives at the moment, plus our resident health and consumer affairs experts. ITV News Presenter Nina Hossain puts viewers' health and consumer questions to Dr Sarah Jarvis, CEO of the British Retail Consortium Helen Dickinson and Political Corresponden...

The national sport is back on June 17 as wall-to-wall football comes to living rooms and smartphones across the UK. The Premier League insists footballers are safer on the pitch than at the supermarket, but how will the games in empty stadia work in practice and what happens if an outbreak of the virus hits one of the 20 teams? Sports Editor Steve Scott talks Mary Nightingale through all the issue...

The Faroe Islands has become one of the first countries in the world to declare itself Covid-19 free. Scotland Correspondent Peter Smith speaks to member of parliament, Kristina Háfoss, who explains how a swift in the strategy brought in in March has succeeded. She argues there were disadvantages as well as advantages to fighting a pandemic among a relatively small population. And she explains wha...

Northern Ireland is the first country in the UK to confirm it will reopen its hotels. July 20 is set to be the day guests are welcomed back for a night or an extended stay away from home. So how will social distancing work and can hotels really ensure there will be no spread of the virus as people stay from one night to the next? UTV's Gareth Wilkinson spoke to Claire Hunter of the Marine Hotel in...

The pubs are open, along with restaurants and cafes, and the kids are back at school - while the hairdressers are back in business. And all on the British Isles. While the UK may be in lockdown, the British Crown dependency Guernsey has managed to return its islanders to something that looks very much like normal life. One person earning an enormous amount of credit for that success is Dr Nicola B...

The World Health Organisation has praised China for its response to Covid-19 but some people are sceptical. ITV News Presenter Mary Nightingale talks to Asia Correspondent Debi Edward who has been reporting from both Beijing and Wuhan since the outbreak started. Debi has interviewed families who have lost loved ones from coronavirus and questioned health officials about what is and isn't being rep...

In this episode of our podcast, we bring you this week's audio version of ITV News' weekly programme, Coronavirus: Q&A, which airs every Monday night. The programme puts your questions to key public figures involved in making the big decisions affecting our lives at the moment, plus our resident health and consumer affairs experts. ITV News Presenter Nina Hossain puts viewers' health and consumer...

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has left a country divided with his handling of the coronavirus outbreak. ITV News Presenter Mary Nightingale talks to correspondent Juliet Bremner who has been reporting from the South American country during the outbreak. From protests on Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana Beach to the bedside of patients in São Paulo, we get the latest at how the country - whic...

Charity shops in England can re-open on 15 June but will they be able to cope with the donations coming their way as we all declutter our homes in lockdown? ITV News Presenter Mary Nightingale chats to Oxfam GB's Chief Executive Danny Sriskandarajah about the challenges shops are facing. He discusses the measures the charity is taking to keep staff safe and ensure customers won't bring coronavirus...

In this episode of our podcast, we bring you this week's audio version of ITV News' weekly programme, Coronavirus: Q&A, which airs every Monday night. The programme puts your questions to key public figures involved in making the big decisions affecting our lives at the moment, plus our resident health and consumer affairs experts. ITV News Presenter Nina Hossain puts viewers' health and consumer...

In this episode of our podcast, we bring you this week's audio version of ITV News' weekly programme, Coronavirus: Q&A, which airs every Monday night. The programme puts your questions to key public figures involved in making the big decisions affecting our lives at the moment, plus our resident health and consumer affairs experts. ITV News Presenter Nina Hossain puts viewers' health and consumer...

The race is on to create a vaccine for coronavirus, but how close are we? ITV correspondent Peter Smith is joined by Professor Emma Thomson from Glasgow's Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation to talk about their latest vaccine trial with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and the University of Oxford. The vaccine was recently trialled in monkeys with some success and now frontline health wor...

Vietnam is one of the few countries to have reported no coronavirus deaths. ITV correspondent Peter Smith is joined by Vietnamese journalist Sen Nguyen who has been following the outbreak since it started. She explains why masks have been key while tracing apps have been unimportant. No community transmissions have been detected in Vietnam since mid-April, so what can other nations learn from the...

In this episode of our podcast, we bring you this week's audio version of ITV News' weekly programme, Coronavirus: Q&A, which airs every Monday night. The programme puts your questions to key public figures involved in making the big decisions affecting our lives at the moment, plus our resident health and consumer affairs experts. In this week's episode, ITV News Presenter Nina Hossain puts viewe...

ITV Scotland correspondent Peter Smith chats to Professor Haas about his work repurposing existing drugs to find a cure for Coronavirus. He talks about how the research is going and what this means for returning to normality. We regularly release new episodes of Coronavirus: What You Need To Know - subscribe so you get the latest ones straightaway. For the latest coronavirus news, information and...

ITV Scotland correspondent Peter Smith spoke to Professor and Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University Devi Sridhar. They discuss how scientists around the word are responding to COVID-19 and what mistakes were made in the early days on the outbreak. Professor Sridhar sits on the advisory committee to the Scottish Government and offers her thoughts on what the country needs to do next...

With the pubs closed and socialising limited to video calls, how have our alcohol habits changed? Kylie Pentelow chats to CEO of Alcohol Change UK Richard Piper. In this episode, he offers advice on how to keep a check on how much alcohol we're consuming and how to deal with the pressures of drinking. If you're worried about alcohol and would like help and advice, support is available at alcoholch...