The headlines the organisation that oversees us president ial debates says it will take steps to avoid a repeat of the chaotic nature of the first debate between donald trump and his challenger joe biden. There are two more debates to come. The Trump Campaign said the rules should not be changed in the middle of the game. Joe biden has condemned the president for not clearly denouncing a White Supremacist Group known as the proud boys. Mr trump said he didnt know who the proud boys were and insisted that right wing militias like them should stand down and let the police do their work. Instead of, as he said in the debate, standing by. The United Nations secretary general, antonio guterres, has urged countries to start funding a global Coronavirus Vaccine plan by using money from their own national programmes. Mr guterres comments follow an urgent appeal by the head of the Global Vaccine Alliance for more countries to join. In order to help poorer countries. Now on bbc news
philippa thomas hears from people around the world about their extraordinary experiences during the pandemic and how covid i9 has changed their lives. Welcome to coronavirus your stories, a programme about how covid i9 has affected lives around the world. I am philippa thomas, and this week were hearing how the pandemic has impacted performance. And well hear from impacted performance. And well hearfrom individuals at impacted performance. And well hear from individuals at the top of their game about how they have dealt with the stress and uncertainty of lockdown. We will hear from an and uncertainty of lockdown. We will hearfrom an emmy nominated Television Director who was partly through filming a world famous series, who was partly through filming a world famous series, the crown, when 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 of joining the Tokyo Olympics were dashed stop as an amateur, suleiman sissoko won a bronze medal at the 2016 summer olympics in rio. Now he is professional, the synagogue born frenchman says he cannot wait to get back in the ring. From senegal. This was going to be another olympic summer, how did you feel when you heard it was going to be 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 . Is that a lot of time in the us because i was there for Training Camp. In the us because i was there forTraining Camp. I in the us because i was there for Training Camp. I was supposed to fight in april and june, so they cancelled both fights. Then i came back here because my wife was pregnant. And she gave birth at the end ofjune. And she gave birth at the end ofjune. So, congratulations thank you very much. Emily 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 110w. A good part of my life right now. Lets hear a little bit of your story. How did you become to bea your story. How did you become to be a boxer . What are my friends was a boxer. He told me you can come with me. Boxing is a very good port and i tried boxing at 1a years old. Then, in one yearand boxing at 1a years old. Then, in one year and another later i became a french youth champion, then i became champion of the french team. I won an olympic bronze medallion at rio. Everything was very, very fast. Of course it is hard with this 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 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, and being with people is good, and being with people is very important. And how has the pandemic affected some of these young people . I guess they are often in difficult situations to start with . During the pandemic it was very ha rd to during the pandemic it was very hard to work because everything was closed and we can do nothing, because every time we keepin nothing, because every time we keep in touch with the young people, another young people didnt understand about the situation. They just
didnt understand about the situation. Theyjust heard you have to stay at home and that is it. So, explaining to every kid about the demonstrations, and everything was fine. Do you have a fight day . Is there anything in the diary . November seven. I will be fighting in the us. Will it be like how it was before . With the pandemic it is very hard without crowds. I think you will only be on tv. What do you think it will feel like when you are fighting again and there is a big crowd there, when it does feel more back to normal . What is it going to be like for you . Oh, i will be, like, it will be a big blessing. Because now it is, like, it has been like one year without right stop i cant wait to come back and hear people
it has been one year without fighting. I cant wait to come back and hear people and fight in the ring. Hoping to hear the roar of the crowd from the boxing ring, again. From is whats the arts, what if you area whats the arts, what if you are a performer and all of your performances are cancelled due to covid 19 . That is what happened to swedish Ballet Dancer nikki, who held the highest rank of first soloist at the vienna state ballet. It was definitely a hard time, because with ballet we normally work ina because with ballet we normally work in a studio and it is all very physical. So, not being able to work in the studio and keepin 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 a little piece of dance mad. So it would be easier to be able to do every day practices. And it was a bit tight on space. But it gave us opportunity to work in these keep our muscles a bit strong and do our work. What effect does it have mentally, knowing you are not going to perform four months . It is quite difficult. In this situation now we dont really know when we will be able to get back stop i know some companies are back already and some are not. And as a dancer, asa some are not. And as a dancer, as a performer, we are very much in as a performer, we are very much in this line 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 ina 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 Lindsey Coffman misty co and her project, 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. It seems to me this is a job, a role you have always wanted. Do you think you have a lwa ys 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 a lwa ys for my parents and dancing has always been a part of my life stop both my parents were dancers, not Ballet Dancers, but other kinds. And i havent a lwa ys but other kinds. And i havent always danced ballet. It wasnt my first love was not actually i was dancing hip hop, jazz, all kinds of dancing. And i started at swedish Ballet School when i was known because i felt i wanted to continue there, more and more dancing every day. And you have
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 it is already very tough. You have to be very strong and know what you want. And really work hard. Its not an easy profession. I feel very honoured i can be a part of it and 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 ican be doing what i love, and by that i can be an inspiration. doing what i love, and by that i can be an inspiration. I am thinking about those Live Performances from your point of view. I have just performances from your point of view. I havejust been performances from your point of view. I have just been talking to an olympic boxer, he 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 read 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 nietzsche. You are watching coronavirus your stories, a programme about how covid 19 is affecting lives around the world. I am philippa thomas, and this week we are looking at the impact of
pandemic on performance, cheering 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 what has it been like for those who are creating all that content we are so eagerly consuming . Something as important as the monarchy. Especially when they are working on a series as i prevail eagerly awaited as the crown on netflix. I have been hearing the story from new zealand born emmy nominated director emmy hops. On march 15 we we re director emmy hops. On march 15 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 close 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 earlier on that wasnt going to be an option and we needed to find a way to work with the material we had. That is how we approached our whole lockdown period. 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 . Yeah. Peter morgan and i had on zoom . Yeah. Peter morgan and ihad an on zoom . Yeah. Peter morgan and i had an unseemly amount of contact on a day to day basis and on zoom and on facetimed. It sounds like you havent had much of a break . I am extremely iwas much of a break . I am extremely i was extremelyjealous 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. Ijust thought, i would like five minutes after 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 have worked and i was able to provide for my family during that time, so many other people that time, so many other people that i was in contact with were not able to. Jessica, looking back at some of the scenes you have films that we have 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 loneliness is a really big factorfor so many 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 drink this sequence of time and loneliness isa
sequence of time and loneliness is a theme that i have always sought out in my work. Think. A voice sort that out as a central theme. I think televisions great workers to reach into peoples home 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, appletree yard, broad church 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 andi could contribute the most to and ifind 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 andi 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 is jubilee 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 cousin. And we will all fall in so cousin. And we will all fall in so you must all hold together. Chas. So you must all hold together. Chas. Must i do that alone . There is only one queen. Chas. Must i do that alone . There is only one queenlj there is only one queen. 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, 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, show that i adored, swept the board. It is about love and humanity on a small scale but essentially learning how you can become pa rt learning how you can become part of a community by becoming a better person yourself. And was just overjoyed about that stop i think things like the watchman which reflects a society where we are already m, society where we are already in, while presenting 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 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, | ourselves in. Ok, talking about light, iam 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 pa rt 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 9am and 4am with my partner asleep next to me. It actually 1am, you got to see into peoples rooms and it was wonderful. They kept the backstage cameras on and we we re the backstage cameras on and we were on my feet 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 offspring that went get on screen and i felt very privileged, to be somehow a pa rt privileged, to be somehow a part of this vip off screen,
this surreal backstage zoom lounge. It was great to be in the live room beforehand. You have 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 a rts recognise the role that the arts has in our society will stop 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 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 being creative in the age of covid 19. Iam philippa 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 dryer 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 14 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, may be 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. This is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. My names mike embley 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. The first person to ever be
curative hiv, timothy