Navigating a deserted BBC

I was on Front Row last night, talking about Leon Fleisher. You can relisten to the interview here.

It was the first time in six months that I had entered Broadcasting House and the shock was considerable.

Open-plan editorial floors, normally buzzing with ideas, were deserted as far as the eye could see. The lifts, once crowded, were restricted to one person at a time. The FR team consisted of one presenter, one producer, one studio manager.

I was placed in the studio ten paces away from the presenter, behind a different table, to avoid risk of contamination.

And the floors were filthy, as if no cleaner had attended in weeks.

But the show goes on, maintaining its nightly enthusiasm for the arts in the most trying of circumstances.

That’s a great achievement. We’d be lost without it.