Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby reflect on lockdown and working throughout the pandemic

Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby reflect on lockdown and working throughout the pandemic

Holly: I knew we were doing something important

Phillip: It's made me appreciate work and friendship

ITV's flagship daytime show This Morning remained on air throughout the global pandemic and achieved its highest ratings in 19 years, with over 10 million viewers tuning in to the show during the first week of lockdown in 2020.

Following on from the next stage of lockdown easing yesterday, hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby took a moment recently to reflect on the most challenging year in the shows 33 year history and how it has changed them.

Martin Frizell, Editor of This Morning said, Phillip and Holly - together with our hard working crew - have quite frankly all been heroes in my eyes for their determination and positivity throughout the pandemic. They helped to deliver a live two-and-a-half-hour show each day throughout the whole of lockdown, when sometimes we didn't even know what or how we could deliver a show some days!

But together we have done it and I'm extremely proud that we were there every step of the way for the nation who were gripped for vital updates on Covid and the vaccine, but also for items that helped to keep spirits up and smile during this most extraordinary year.

PHILLIP AND HOLLY QUOTES:

How do you think this year has changed you?

Phillip: It's made me appreciate work and friendship. It's also made me appreciate the small things in life that when we can get them all back, I don't think I'll ever take them for granted again - the fact that I could actually get in my car and drive to see my mum, go and see mates or have mates round. Those simple, simple things. I'm not even fussed about vast international holidays and things like that, I just want to sit in my garden with some mates.

Holly: I agree. I think it's those small things, those small liberties that you take for granted that you never thought that anybody would take away from you ever. You couldn't even see that as a possibility. How has that happened?' which was exactly how we felt as it was happening. You know, that kind of panic and fear and, God, what is this?'

I've learnt so much and I hope a lot of the things that I've learnt will stay with me. It's funny, because I can see it with the kids as well, I think all generations are going through it.

What supported you most during this past year?

Holly: The viewers. I think knowing what you were doing was being well received made all the difference, otherwise why else would you do it? We've been told by viewers we were like the nation's comfort blanket, which is just amazing.

Phillip: And the viewers were our comfort blanket too! It's the core things. I mean we're lucky because of the job that we do with that extended family, so you have support from viewers and then you shrink down into what everybody had at that time hopefully, you have either your friends or your family, and that was what we all suddenly needed the most. You needed someone to be there if you were struggling or they were struggling and you were there. It's the simple things in life, the fundamental support of friends and family. And then we were lucky to have the extended work colleagues that we could see, and beyond that, this enormous team or family of people who were going through it with us as well.

Do you feel proud about what you and the This Morning team have achieved during lockdown? What has been the highlight for you?

Holly: I don't know how they've done it half the time actually, because I think in the beginning nobody knew what we were getting into really. We didn't know what one day to the other was going to look like, things were changing so quickly and you know, we had a whole office bustling with people and then day by day it was getting less and less and less. Then it was just the two of us, Martin [Frizell, Editor] was here and just a couple of people on camera, and we were all a little bit scared actually and so to be able to adapt and change whilst worrying about what was going on, worrying about their own families, what was going on at home. You know a lot of them are parents themselves and they would've been trying to balance that with homeschooling. There was a lot on everyone's plate at that time.

Phillip: It's this sort of enormous shared experience and quite unique in telly terms. Certainly the way we chose to want to be there for our This Morning family, the viewers, was that we wouldn't be hysterical, we would want to report in a sensible way, give it time, no knee jerk reactions - hold on a second, let's just sit back and think about this. We're all still here, we're all okay, everything's alright, we'll be fine.

And of course, that's not being glib and trite over the fact that over 128,000 people [in the UK] have lost their lives. Of course that's important, those families utterly devastated. But if there was something that was said, we would look at it in an analytical way, lets make sure we know that this is right before we take it any further, and I think that's been an enormous calming effect on people who've watched. Yes we've reported it, but I think we've been quite sensible, we've been quite calm, there hasn't been hysteria and we've also allowed ourselves to laugh senseless, because that's what you do when things like this happen.

We'd go on air and Lorraine had finished, and it meant that because we were in the same studio unusually, we didn't get any lights, and our lights would be off until Lorraine went off air for four minutes of that commercial break between the two shows. Our lights came on, cameras came on and

LINK:	https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/phillip-schofield-and-h...
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