“…Covid-19 is the pandemic that led to Britain becoming one of the countries with the worst loss of life in the developed world.”
Covid-19 UK 2020 – | The Documentary – Tahir Ashraf
Covid-19 | The Documentary Team
Tahir Ashraf | Barrister
Originally trained in journalism based at BBC Radio Lancashire, the creator of this novel coronavirus documentary project is Tahir Ashraf – a Power 100 multi award winning practising barrister, actor, presenter and singer – turned filmmaker.
What makes Tahir the right person for this Covid-19 documentary project? Because of his training and experience, Tahir expertly analyses facts, cuts through jargonistic ‘schpeel’ sound bites, to get to the root of an issue.
Originally this Covid-19 documentary was only going to cover political and academic interviews addressing the British response to the pandemic. However, given that the BAME community has been disproportionally affected, the project scope has evolved to consider why Britain has one of the worst death tolls in the developed world.
Jon Farley
The key people behind this project include Executive Producer Jon Farley, who started his career in Banking and led a specialist Media Team focusing on companies in the Film, TV, Music, Advertising and Publishing sectors as well as large relationship teams in the Wealth Management Division.
Jon was the Lloyds Banking Group’s Regional CEO Asia Managing Director / Country Head of Lloyds Bank (Gibraltar). Jon was Executive Producer of The Safe House: A Decline of Ideas & Ezra Pound: The Last Cantos.
Alex Brown
Alex Brown is a UK-based producer who became involved in film and music from a very early age. He had his first head credit appearance in a film drama at the age of six months. By 14, Alex became known as a national child actor in Canada, with principal roles in feature films and major network television series. In 2001, he was production co-ordinator on three international British feature film co-productions. At the age of 24, Alex was Associate Producer on the television series Big Sound, a 22-part sitcom about the music industry.
This British-Canadian series was created by David Steinberg (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld) and was broadcast in over twenty countries worldwide in its first season, with very good critical reception.
Among other films, Alex also produced a Lionsgate film called Nemesis Game, a year after Curb. Most recently Alex was also the Executive Producer on a documentary entitled, Sean Garnier vs The World. He is instrumental in putting finance and talent together for the multi-million-pound production for Pinewood Studios, called Take Down. Alex was a co-owner of Studio Eight which made over $400m of production and is an integral part of Covid-19 documentary team.
Alex Macaulay
Alex Macaulay is based in London. He started in film in 2003 in The Bahamas, working on films like After the Sunset, Into the Blue, Casino Royale, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. He relocated to London in 2008 and has continued to work on feature films. He started Black Bull Productions and produced several shorts and the award winning feature film Ham and The Piper.
From 2009 -2014 Alex owned Blackbull Studios where he had many film students from Central Film School complete graduating films, commercials and music videos.
Having worked his way up in numerous departments and he has completed over 60 US, UK and Indian feature films. Alex’s work has given him an invaluable intrinsic insight into how a project comes together from beginning to end. He is an integral part of this project
Covid-19 | The Documentary Project
As Britons we are famous the world over for our reputation for the stiff upper lip. Being in the midst of this global pandemic has made each and every one of us question how quickly life can end.
That is why this documentary is important and crucially, different. It is different because instead of hearing only from politicians, and academics, we will hear first hand experience of survivors and medical professionals, to get a real feel the British experience.
We will also speak with politicians, academics and journalists to critique the UK’s response to the British Covid-19 crisis.
To examine the very British picture, this project looks at the stark British picture in light of the World Health Organisation (WHO) publications, press coverage, compared with governmental publications and updates.
Covid-19 | The Documentary Scope
Make no mistake, this Covid-19 documentary scope is intended to be a critique of the UK’s response to the British Covid-19 crisis, following which Britain became one of the countries with the worst death toll in the developed world.
“…justice cannot be done to any documentary covering the covid-19 global pandemic without reference to the tragic untimely death of George Floyd”
Tahir Ashraf
Unusually we will also be looking at this from an additional perspective. That is the Black Lives Matter movement.
That is because justice cannot be done to any documentary covering the Covid-19 global pandemic without reference to the tragic untimely tragic untimely death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA, which gave rise to protests, riots and marches across the world.
In arriving at the British picture, we will be analysing data primarily from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Unusually, we will also be looking at this from an additional perspective. That is the Black Lives Matter movement. That is because justice cannot be done to any documentary covering the covid-19 global pandemic without reference to the tragic untimely death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA, which gave rise to protests, riots and marches across the world. Most importantly, his death sparked a moment of global solidarity and most importantly, reflection.
The team is being added to and so if you think you can help, why not get in touch! We’d love to hear from you! send us an email to: info@c19uk2020.com
Covid-19 | The Documentary Participants
There are a number of participants involved all of whom are predominantly British and from the UK. Given that Covid-19 is a global pandemic, for justice to be done to this documentary, there will inevitably be discussions with people from other countries too.
The start of this picture is with people who have suffered from covid-19 themselves as well as others recognised in British life, including parliamentarians. We are in talks with many international stars including boxer Amir Khan and below are some confirmed participants:
Aneel Mussarat
Henry Smith MP
Dr Khurshid Ahmed CBE
Dr Parvinder Shergill
… and many more!