Meet the family: how lockdown TV has brought fame to the loved ones of the famous

Art mirrors life, but it also works the other way round. Then again, sometimes there is little difference between the two. When David Tennant and Michael Sheen perform on screen together remotely this week, they will be playing the parts of actors who are trying to work from home against the odds. And appearing alongside them in Staged, a new six-part comic drama for BBC One, will be Georgia Tennant, who happens to be married to Tennant, and Anna Lundberg, who is locked down in Wales in real life with her partner, Sheen, and their new baby.

The faces of the parents, partners and children of many household names have started to become familiar to viewers. When Chris Packham presented his scaled-down Springwatch on BBC Two this season, he did it alongside his stepdaughter, the wildlife expert Megan McCubbin, while the comedian Romesh Ranganathan has his mother, Shanthi, up there on a screen beside him, the ultimate in reliable sidekicks, on BBC Two’s hit topical show The Ranganation. And last month when Charlie Brooker presented a one-off side-swipe at current affairs on the same channel’s Antiviral Wipe, his wife, Konnie Huq, handily provided a comic domestic cameo or two.

In Huq’s case, of course, the camera is no stranger. She began presenting Blue Peter at the age of 22. Georgia Tennant and Lundberg are also accustomed to performing. Lundberg, from Sweden, studied acting in London, and Tennant, as well as bringing up five children with her husband, has a television career. All the same, making Staged has been an exposing experiment.

“We wanted it to be as real as possible, but at the same time not too revealing of our own lives,” said Tennant. “After all, we are in our own house, filming it with our children around us. We are opening up before the nation, but you do want to retain something.”

Tennant, also one of the producers of the show, was born into acting, since her parents are Sandra Dickinson and Peter Davison, the other former Doctor from Doctor Who in her life. She has appeared on screen with her father before, but this time, opposite her husband, the stakes are higher since she portrays a version of her own life. The plot of Staged, written by Simon Evans and Phin Glynn, revolves around the efforts of the two men, Tennant and Sheen, to rehearse remotely for a West End show during lockdown.

“In the first drafts of the script, I was much more supportive,” she explained. “David plays a more pathetic version of himself, and I just thought I would lose patience with him if he was like that. So I decided to play someone not as indulgent.”

The strategy also affords some protective distance from the relationship being displayed on screen.

“We had to think about what to show of the house. Michael and Anna were much smarter than us though,” said Tennant. “They cleverly set up their camera in one corner of their kitchen. But about a third of our stuff is done on iPhone, so moves all around the place. Some of the footage comes from quite strange places, as we had to find somewhere that wasn’t occupied at that moment.”

For other lockdown relatives of the famous, such as McCubbin, a zoolologist, facing a primetime television audience alongside her stepfather from the garden of their Hampshire home required a sudden change of gear. But the two seemed happy to tease each other. McCubbin had not been doing the washing up, Packham suggested. “Come on, you can identify 46 UK ladybirds, but you don’t even know where the saucepan lives,” she parried.

Meanwhile, online, a grateful nation has had cause to applaud another handy stand-in. When the YouTube star Joe Wicks hurt his hand and was unable to lead his daily exercise class, it was his wife, Rosie, who stepped up to the plate, with her husband on the sidelines. “I’ve had to call in a supply teacher,” he posted online. “Rosie’s kindly agreed to come on the livestream with me to demonstrate the moves as I really need to let my hand rest for a few days. It’s totally out of her comfort zone, so I have got so much love and respect for her right now.”

For Ranganathan’s mother, the learning curve has been approached at a sedate pace. She started working with her errant son on his BBC Three show Asian Provocateur, and now takes pride of place on an acclaimed lockdown adaptation of The Ranganation. Her brand of impromptu motherly disapproval shapes the programme’s appeal, and her son admits she now presents a challenge. “Does it grate slightly when people go on about how naturally funny she is? Yes it does,” he has said. “But she loves it, she loves getting recognised, and I’m happy for her to be successful. Up to a point.”

And making the show work from behind the scenes is Debra Blenkinsop, director of operations at the production company Zeppotron. “We treat Shanthi more like one of the other invited star guests,” she explained. Mrs Ranganathan gets makeup tutorials before the shoot and a direct feed from her home into the studio – set up in her son’s garage.

“We were helped by the nature of the show, and lucky that Romesh had a garage. You have to make sure the family are happy when you film in their home, and you have to keep neighbours informed too. We let them know when the trucks will be there,” said Blenkinsop, who has speedily become an expert in lockdown production.

On Friday, she shared her know-how in an online masterclass staged by ScreenSkills for those making unscripted television. “We set it all up meticulously, with specialist gear and gloves. Even the pizza for the crew has to be delivered to a station where the boxes are sanitised first.”

Blenkinsop suspects the family dynamic is essential to the mood of the show. “It is an insight into a tiny facet of the Ranganathans’ lives, but they can choose what we see. It looks incredibly intimate.”

Also taking newfound screen fame in her stride is Grayson Perry’s other half, the psychotherapist and writer Philippa Perry. The Turner prize-winning ceramicist has hosted Art Club for Channel 4 from his home studio, and his wife is there to cast an eye and join in with a weekly artistic challenge. Their presentation of home life, so apparently natural, is also a key to the tone of the show. Like The Ranganation, it puts the experiences and reactions of a selection of viewers at its heart, offering something inclusive.

“When you are separated from society, you want to emphasise the common ground,” said Georgia Tennant. “You see people on social media home-schooling with perfect hair. And I am not like that, so we left things as they are.

“You become quite ‘unvain’, which is good. You can’t worry about filming from the right angle, you just have to do it when you can.” The process has also had mental health benefits, she suspects. “When it has all been schooling the kids, which has been hideous, talking to the other producers felt like having some social life again.”