Film and TV crew are no longer exempt from coronavirus restrictions related to job travel, it has emerged. The UK government’s list of jobs that qualify for travel exemptions has been updated to remove “television production” and “high end television production and film”, which means that executives and crew arriving in the UK will have to isolate for 10 days.
The move is a reversal of the widely publicised policy that saw film-makers and crew allowed into the UK in July without quarantine as part of a government drive to get film production in the UK back up and running. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden had made the announcement after apparently consulting with Tom Cruise, whose Mission Impossible films were among the Hollywood productions to restart shooting in the UK in September.
Other productions likely to be affected include The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, which had been halted for two weeks in September after Pattinson tested positive for coronavirus.
The only media-related job on the government’s list still exempt from travel restrictions appears to be workers on the BBC’s broadcasting transmission network and services.
