By Irene Madongo
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Law360, London (March 15, 2021, 2:22 PM GMT )
Television programs "Ready Steady Cook" and crime drama "Midsomer Murders" are among 230 titles that have restarted work with the help of a £500 million ($700 million) insurance program providing cover during the COVID-19 pandemic, HM Treasury said on Monday.
The titles feature on a list of productions registered with the government's film and TV restart scheme, which was
launched in July 2020 to help provide insurance to productions that could not find cover because of the risks presented by the coronavirus outbreak.
Following the onset of the pandemic, many insurers introduced exclusions to policies for cancelations or delays caused by COVID-19 as they sought to avoid making payouts on claims.
But TV and movie productions that started filming before October can submit claims for compensation for losses linked to the pandemic, such as delays caused by crew members falling ill, the government has said. It has
extended the program to December.
"Our restart scheme has already helped the U.K.'s world class film and TV sector bounce back strongly, with studio business booming, filling film studios and helping generate more than a billion pounds in production spend," Oliver Dowden, Culture Secretary, said.
The government said that productions revealed on Monday also include another crime drama, "Unforgotten" and "Expedition with Steve Backshall," a film about wildlife adventures. The productions are available to watch or will be released later this year.
Ben Roberts, chief executive of the British Film Institute, said the scheme has been instrumental in getting the independent production industry back up and running.
"Cameras rolling on new productions generated a £1.19 billion uplift in spend in the final months of last year, and a significant chunk of that has been generated by the 200-plus film and television productions which have been covered by the scheme against potential COVID-related disruption," Roberts said.
--Additional reporting by Martin Croucher. Editing by Ed Harris.
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