Fearne Cotton, Monty Don and Ainsley Harriott

From comedian & writer Paul Kerensa:

I’m a full-time comedian. My diary may disagree. As of a few days ago, the live events went on hold, just for now. We’ve taken a rather long interval – and we can’t wait for that lobby announcement, that it’s time to take our seats, that the show’s about to start again.

In a standard show, I’d walk out onstage, grab the mic, ask how everyone is – I’ll certainly keep doing that – then tell a few gags, and stories. I’d joke that I watch too much TV, so my wife says turn it off, read a book. She’d say: “Educate yourself! Do you know any words of... Churchill?” I’d look up from the TV. “Churchill? (AS CHURCHILL DOG) Ohhhhh yes! Ohhhh no no...” And the audience would laugh, if they knew the advert. Maybe my wife had a point, about watching too much TV.

There might be no more live shows, for now, but it’s a brief intermission.

The same is true at my church, where this Sunday, for the first time in 700 years, they’ll have no public church service. Well, our vicar, Mark, will be there, holding Holy Communion alone, continuing that chain. Many services will be live-streamed, and many windows, at 7pm this Sunday, will include lit candles, a reminder of light in the darkness, hope persisting.

One of my last gigs recently was in an ancient church building. I said to the vicar: “What a lovely wooden old church you have here.” “Ahh,” he said. “The church isn’t the building, it’s the people.” “Yes,” I said. “That’s exactly what I meant.” I joke, but that vicar was right, the church is the people. Just as Britain is the people. Life continues.

This Mothering Sunday, we can make those phone calls, reach out to estranged family, help neighbours, keep connections going.

We’ll come back, to the church buildings, to the restaurants – Mothering Sunday get-togethers delayed. We’ll come back to the shops, to the gigs. And the music goes on: thank you Zoë and team. After this, we’re going to have one heck of a party. But we don’t need to wait to laugh, to share jokes and stories, to chat during this interval, before the show goes back on.