The Greater Manchester fire and rescue service has apologised for its response to the Manchester Arena attack three years ago, saying it was neither adequate nor effective. At the Public Inquiry the lawyer representing Fire Fighters admitted that it was unacceptable that it took two hours for them to arrive at the scene. Our correspondent Judith Moritz reports. Screaming it looks real enough, but this was a fake terror attack, a Training Exercise at the Trafford Centre a year before a real bomb exploded at Manchester Arena. During this rehearsal, the police failed to contact fire and ambulance teams, who took an hour and a half to arrive on the scene. Lessons should have been learned. But when the attack happened for real, similar mistakes were made again. It took two hours for firefighters to be sent to the arena. We would like to say to the families and victims that we are sorry that this happened. The inquiry will hear evidence from many individual gmfrs witnesses who still have profound feelings of frustration and deep anguish that they were not there to help. Sirens none of the senior fire officers thought they were in command on the night, and no one took charge. Ive spoken to the family of saffie roussos, who was murdered at the arena, and they told me that the fire service apology was painful to hear, but they say they feel its the only organisation which hasnt passed the buck, and they say they want other authorities to be as open and transparent, adding that they believe mi5 hasnt accepted any failures. The government has said that there was a missed opportunity to stop and search the bomber, salman abedi, when he returned to the uk from libya, four days before the attack. They have also revealed that he had links to at least six people who were being investigated by mi5 for connections to terrorist groups. On two separate occasions in the months prior to the attack, intelligence was received by mi5 about him. The intelligence was assessed at the time to relate to possibly innocent activity or to non terrorist criminality on his part. In retrospect, this intelligence was highly relevant to the planned attack, but the significance of it was not fully appreciated at the time. 22 people were murdered at Manchester Arena. The Public Inquiry will have to decide what, if anything, could have prevented such tragic loss of life. Judith moritz, bbc news, manchester. Now on bbc news Philippa Thomas hears from people around the world about their extraordinary experiences during the pandemic and how covid 19 has changed their lives. Welcome to coronavirus your stories, a programme about how covid 19 has affected lives around the world. Im Philippa Thomas, and this week were hearing how the pandemic has impacted performers. And well hear from individuals at the top of their game about how theyve dealt with the stress and uncertainty of lockdown. Well hear from an emmy nominated Television Director who was partly through filming a world famous series, the crown, when suddenly, lockdown intervened. Something as important as the monarchy. The swedish ballerina who was lockdown in vienna tells us what it means not to perform in public or even to have enough space to fully stretch out and dance by herself. We start with a french boxer and olympic medallist whose hopes ofjoining the Tokyo Olympics were dashed. As an amateur, Souleymane Cissokho won a bronze medal at the 2016 summer olympics in rio. Now hes professional, the senegal born frenchman says he cannot wait to get back in the ring. Souleymane, this was going to be another olympic summer, how did you feel when you heard it was cancelled . It was a very bad time, because i had Training Camp and i gave my best every time in Training Camp, so it was very hard. So, no tokyo. So, what have the last six months have been like for you, souleymane . I spent a lot of time in the us because i was there for Training Camp. I was supposed to fight in april and then injune, so they cancelled both fights. Then i came back here because my wife was pregnant. And she gave birth at the end ofjune. So, congratulations thank you very much. Family is very important for me, so i spent a lot of time with family, in and out, and that is a good part of my life right now. Lets hear a little bit of your story. How did you become to be a boxer . One of my friends was a boxer. He told me, souleymane, you can come with me. Boxing is very good sport and i tried boxing at 14 years old. Then, in one year and a half later i became the french youth champion, then i became captian of the french team. I won an olympic bronze medallion, 2016, at rio. Everything was very, very fast. Of course its hard but its an amazing sport. Tell us about the Sport Education initiative that you run. The Sport Education is very important for me. The aim is to help the most disadvantaged people. We operate in france, also in africa. We organise some Training Camps, we help meet new people, we try to educate people, you know . Because sport is good, but education also is very important. And what have you heard about the way the pandemic has affected some of these young people . I guess, theyre often in difficult situations to start with . During the pandemic it was very hard to work, because everything was closed and we can do nothing, because every time we keep in touch with the young people, a lot of the young people didnt understand about the situation. They just heard, like, you have to stay at home and thats it. So, we explained to every kid about the situation, and then everything was fine. And what about you, souleymane, do you have a fight date . Is there anything in the diary . I have a fight date. November seventh. So, i will fight in the us. Will it be like how it was before . Now, with the pandemic it is very hard without crowds. I think it will be only be on tv. What do you think it will feel like when youre fighting again and theres a big crowd there, when it does feel more back to normal . Whats it going to be like for you . Oh, i will be, like, it will be a blassing, a big blessing. Because now it is, like, its been like one year without fights. So, i cant wait to come back in the ring and with the crowd and everything. Hear people say my name. So i cant wait to fight with crowd. Souleymane cissokho, hoping to hear the roar of the crowd from the boxing ring, again. From sports to the arts, what if youre a performer and all of your performances are cancelled due to covid i9 . Thats what happened to swedish ballet dancer nikisha fogo, who held the highest rank of first soloist at the vienna state ballet. Oh, it was definitely a hard time, because with ballet we normally work in a studio and its all very physical. So, not being able to work in the studio and keep in shape was quite challenging. You really hard to think in different ways and different, new ways to be able to stay in shape and do what you love to do, basically. How could you practise . Because obviously you do need space . My space was my living room, and you see the little piece of dance matt. So it would be easier to be able to do everyday practices. And it was a bit tight on space. But it gave us opportunity to work in these. Uh, keep our muscles a bit strong and do our form work. What effect does it have mentally, knowing you are not going to perform four months . For months . Yeah, its quite difficult. In this situation now we dont really know when we will be able to get back. I know some companies are back already and some are not. And as a dancer, as a performer, were very much in this live aspect, and to perform is what we are living for. So, to have that kind of taken away from you can be difficult, mentally. In the sense of, well, you cant do what you love to do in the same way. For me, i was trying to figure out other things that made me happy, using other hobbies. I kept myself busy with those things, jumping around in a big space. And you have quite a lot to look forward to, you are moving in 2021 . Yes. I am moving to San Francisco and i am joining the San Francisco ballet as principal dancer. Which is really exciting. I was already supposed to be there injuly, so that was postponed. It was upsetting. Also exciting to get to know my new colleagues and explore the new city and be in this new environment. It is perhaps harder still for other dancers. I know there is an effort to help support people who dont have positions like yours . During the lockdown or the pandemic, i was involved with Misty Copeland and her project called swans for relief, where a lot of professional ballerinas around the world gather and record themselves performing this iconic ballet role, the dying swan, in their home, during the quarantine. And we did this as a fundraiser to try and get money and support for those dancers that have hardest this time. Like, students or people that are freelancing and dont have the same support as maybe i do, like a proper house. Opera house. It seems to me this is a job, a role you have always wanted. Do you think you have always wanted to be a dancer . Yes for me it was yes since i was a young child. I was always dancing at home. Me and my sister were always dancing in front of the mirror in the living room and making shows for my parents and dancing has always been a part of my life. Both my parents were dancers, not ballet dancers, but other kinds. And athough i havent always danced ballet, it wasnt my first love, actually i was dancing hip hop, jazz, all kinds of dancing. And i started at swedish Ballet School when i was around nine, because i felt i wanted to continue to grow more as a dancer and dance every day. And youve achieved these very prominent roles both in vienna and now moving on to california. Do you feel that youve stood out in terms of talent and of race in the world you are in . In this ballet world its already a very tough environment. You have to be very strong and know what you want and really work hard. Its not an easy profession. Ifeel very honoured i can be a part of an inspiration for younger dancers, younger children and for them to have someone to look up to. However, i am just doing what i love, and by that i can be an inspiration. I am thinking about those Live Performances from your point of view. Ive just been talking to an olympic boxer, souleymane said he cant wait to be in the ring with a crowd around him. And i guess for you it is really going to be meaningful to be on the stage with an audience right out in front of you . Yeah, it really is a special feeling to feel the energy of the audience. Not really knowing how its going to go, how its going to plan out. Weve been rehearsing for months and you are at this point where you are supposed to deliver and just enjoy. And the audience really has a big part of that. As we rehearse every day, when there is an audience there, Something Special happens. And i really cant wait to get back to that. And i hope it will be sooner rather than later. Ballet dancer nikisha fogo. You are watching coronavirus your stories, a programme about how covid 19 is affecting lives around the world. Im Philippa Thomas, and this week were looking at the impact of pandemic on performers, hearing from outstanding individuals in the worlds of sport and the arts. You may have watched more television over the last six months. I know i have but whats it been like for those who are creating all that content were so eagerly consuming . Something as important as the monarchy. Especially when theyre working on a series as high profile and eagerly awaited as the crown on netflix. I have been hearing the story from new zealand born emmy nominated director jessica hobbs. On march 15 i think we were filming with around 400 people in the centre of london. And we still had six or seven days left of filming to go and we realised we were never going to meet that target with everything going on. So we closed down filming with the ambitious idea of being able to go back and pick up those sequences and scenes we hadnt been able to shoot. But it became abundantly clear to us early on that wasnt going to be an option and we needed to find a way to work with the material we had. So that is how we approached our whole lockdown period. Was, how can we create Something Wonderful out of what we have, rather than mourn the things we werent able to get. Did this mean there had to be an awful lot of brainstorming on zoom . Uh, yeah. Laughter. Peter morgan and i had an unseemly amount of contact on a day to day basis and on zoom and on facetime. It sounds like you havent had much of a break . I am extremely i was extremely jealous of all of those people in lockdown saying i have been doing the vegetable garden, i have been making sourdough, i have learned a new language. I just thought, i just would love five minutes after to put my head down. Off to put my head down. But equally, i was incredibly grateful to have a job during that period of time. That was just lucky timing. You know, i am a freelancer in a freelance industry and it has been particularly tough for our industry. So, while i was very grateful for the fact that i had work and i was able to provide for my family during that time, so many other people that i was in contact with werent able to. Jessica, looking back at some of the scenes you have filmed that weve seen for season three, it also struck me that there is quite a lot about loneliness in the middle of everything, for the queen and Prince Philip especially. And loneliness is a really big factor for so many of us now in pandemic times, im thinking in particular of your scene where i think Prince Philip is alone when he is watching the first man step onto the moon. That is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. I, yes, i thought about that sequence a lot actually. I think this sequence of time and loneliness is a theme that i have always sought out in my work. Ive always sought that out as a central theme. I think televisions great work is to reach into peoples homes and help them feel a little bit less lonely and little bit more seen. And that was, you know, an extraordinary combination of events where everyone was so excited about whether the moon landing would happen but very few people stayed up, particularly in his home, to actually watch that exit from the columbia onto the surface of the moon. And i love that he experienced that on his own and it was so emotional. It may be think about how so many people are experiencing huge emotional challenges and kind of universal things that are happening. This is a global pandemic. Well understand what it is and yet so many of us, so many are experiencing an extreme isolation and that sequence i think spoke strongly to that in retrospect. I think we all also appreciate storytellers now. I mean, a lot of us have watched a lot more or television and film. The demand is there. Just for a moment, jessica, i want to take you back because you are of course an emmy nominated Award Winning director of the crown, apple tree yard, broadchurch many other dramas. What would you say got you where you are . Being true to chasing those stories where i felt i could contribute the most to and i find that if they are stories that have at their heart something that is difficult and challenging but ultimately redemptive for a character to go through. Some kind of, you know, passage of fire that they have to go through in order to perhaps be at their better selves or contribute more. That is the kind of work i always look for and i found that when i started being really true to myself about why i loved scripts and what i wanted to do than the work came as a result of that. I know you cant tell us very much about season four, it is coming up around the world next month. In terms of the queen, but isolated figure who could not be more in the spotlight. What do you find emotionally in this challenge . We all know her and we dont know her . She is lying here, just coming to and remembering this isjubilee day. We have a face that we put on, a public face when we walk out the door and our private face in isolation and that is something that i think has become far more accentuated during this period of time where people feel so isolated. And i think the queen reflects that to us and we project onto her what we need her to be. You cannot make a mistake, because if you show a single crack, it will not be a crack but a chasm. And we will all fall in so you must all hold together. And we will all fall in so you must all it hold together. Must i do that alone . There is only one queen. I certainly from working on the show have gained a profound respect for her as a human being, someone who been consistently constant as a presence in our lives and as a female world leader. Ask yourself, and the time i have been on the front, ask yourself, and the time i have been on the throne, what i actually achieved . You have been from, stable and. Useless and unhelpful. This country was still great when i came to the throne and now look. You said you like scripts that really resonated mean something, what you think audiences are wanting now . We have gone through so much in the past six months. I it was wonderful at the emmys that schitts creek, a show that i adored, swept the board. It is about love and humanity on a small scale but essentially learning how you can become part of a community by becoming a better person yourself. And was just overjoyed about that. I think things like watchmen, which reflects a society where we are already in, while presenting to be where we are already in, while pretending to be futuristic, is groundbreaking. I think people looking for things that are not only escapism but show that there is a way forward that they can believe in, particularly when the world is in crisis. And i think that is why people are looking for, they are looking to be moved and to relate and to have something to hang onto that might be a little bit of light in this darkness we find ourselves in. Ok, talking about light, i am going to talk about the emmys, the usual star studded occasion, all of that drama and all of those crowds. What was it like to be part of the emmys in your living room . It was completely surreal and kind of wonderful. I thought, it is just going to be sitting here between 1am and 4am with my partner asleep next to me. But actually you got to see into peoples rooms and it was wonderful. They kept the backstage cameras on and we were on live feeds so it kept going between them. So that was Bradley Whitford checking how he looks in that chair, Jennifer Aniston going between places. You could see things happening offscreen that went get on screen and i felt very privileged, to be somehow a part of this vip, this surreal backstage zoom lounge. It was great to be in the live room beforehand. You got to speak together in a way we normally wouldnt. We got to share admiration for others work. It was a much better than i expected and i loved that they brought real people into present those awards. I am sad that it has taken Something Like this to make that difference but it is great as an industry to recognise your audience. And for that arts community, what do you think is on the horizon, jessica . As weve said, there are so many people who are freelance, so many people who dont know where the next work is coming from and in the northern hemisphere, we are going into what could be a very tough winter. I do think more Government Support is needed to recognise the role that the arts has in our society. But i believe that creative people will always find a way to do their work and out of this will come some amazing work. I am already starting to see some of it coming out, bubbling up, what people are riding, what theyre wanting to convey, the kind of photography coming through. The kind of home made projects but they are so full of hearts the kind of home made projects but they are so full of heart and vitality and a kind of clarity of vision because Everything Else has been stripped back. That is my optimistic view. Jessica hobbs on the crown and being creative in the age of covid 19. I am Philippa Thomas. Thank you forjoining us on this addition of performance, the last in our edition of coronavirus your stories. Hello. Thursday offers up the promise of a drier day for the majority of the uk in comparison to wednesday. There should be some decent sunshine and the winds will be a little light as well. How are we managing that when our weather is dominated essentially by this massive area of low pressure for the coming days . One with actually seven centres but we are getting quite close to a little hill in the isobars. That is a brief ridge of High Pressure that we will sit in through thursday. Its not plain sailing though, there will still be some more persistent rain across northern and eastern scotland through the day and coming into the south west through the afternoon, some sharper showers that will push into wales, some for northern ireland, perhaps some more generally across southern britain later on in the day. But in contrast to wednesday, lighter winds, and the rain nowhere near as widespread temperatures 111 15 degrees. We head through thursday evening, and we will start to notice something developing to the south of the uk. The rain towards the north pulls away, it becomes quite quiet here, skies clear, its a largely dry night across scotland and northern ireland, and actually chilly in some rural spots. But to the south of the uk, weve basically got a hook thats formed, and this is a deep low Pressure Centre that is set to spin up across brittany, ploughing its way into france the worst of the weather think on the way to france. The French Met Service have given it a name, its storm alex, and it looks like it will also affect southern britain, so hence our concern for friday, particularly through the early part of the day for heavy rain across southern counties of england pushing into south wales, and very strong winds, jersey maybe gusting up to 70 mph. Even in land, though, 30 35 mph as that low centre spins away to the south of us and this weather from swings north. Quite a contrast between the north and south on friday. England and wales, wet and windy. Scotland and northern ireland, largely dry with some decent spells of sunshine. But for the weekend, we are still dominated by low pressure, and as such, it looks like further bands of rain will sweep around this larger low with its centre to the south. I think some wet weather for all areas through the weekend, some strong winds at times too. The detail on this low, somewhat complicated, so its very hard for us to pinpoint exactly when your area will get wettest of the weather. But that trend, im afraid, is very clear. Of the audience. Welcome to bbc news. My names mike embley. Our top stories the body that oversees us president ial debates says itll take steps to ensure there is no repeat of wednesdays chaotic and angry contest. The un secretary general calls on richer countries to help out so everyone can get access to a potential covid vaccine. Everybody will only be protected when the countries in the developing world will also be able to vaccinate their citizens. Protests in india as the body of a young woman who was gang raped is cremated without her familys permission. And fresh wildfires cause chaos and destruction in california thousands more are forced to flee their homes