The director of new drama Isolation Stories said on This Morning it was actually filmed by heavily pregnant Sheridan Smith 's fiancé in lockdown.
Jeff Pope, ITV's Head of Factual Drama, spoke to hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield about the show, which was written, directed and performed in lockdown.
They played a trailer for the show starring Sheridan as Melanie, speaking to her family over video calls while heavily pregnant and on her own.
Jeff explained that Monday night's episode, which is based around Sheridan's character, was entirely filmed by her fiancé Jamie Horn.
"He, without any question, could start a career as a camera operator if he wanted to after this," said Jeff.
"He was fantastic, and of course it was just the two of them and she's massively pregnant, she's due in about two weeks.
"He moved her around, he did the lighting, he did her wardrobe, he made lunch…
"It was one of the most wonderful spirits of togetherness I have ever experienced working on a drama, even though no one was ever in the same room."
Jeff revealed it took less than a month for the show to go "from idea to screen" which is almost unheard of normally.
"If it’s not as polished and perfect as normal drama, I just felt people would give us a break because we had a go," he said.
One actor, Eddie Marsan, had his two sons act in the show too so they could add more characters to the show without breaking social distancing rules.
And his wife, Janine, was camerawoman for all of Eddie's scenes, all the while home schooling the children during break times.
Actors also had to do their own make up including Robert Glenister who had to make himself look sick with makeup without any experience, while a makeup artist advised him via video chat on what to do.
Jeff revealed that the project was inspired by his wife having shown coronavirus symptoms.
He said: “For about three days we were on the verge of, ‘Should we take her to A&E?’ 111 and a couple of doctors who were friends, the advice was to do with breaths per minute, over 20 is dangerous, should be about 14.
"So I didn’t realise it at the time, but I thought that afterwards, this is an interesting story and I built around that.
"And I spoke to three other wonderful writers… and the pitch was just to reflect something that is going on in our lives… and let’s tell these short stories.
“Hopefully they’ll be funny, they might be sad, heartwarming but at least reflect what’s going on whilst it’s still going on.”
