With production on EastEnders back on, it’s been revealed that producers have drafted in cast members’ actual partners to help film kissing scenes for future episodes.
The BBC has reported that for certain scenes when characters need to kiss their significant other (or, in some cases, their extramarital one), actors will be seen smooching their real-life partners, allowing “moments of intimacy to be cheated” on screen.
This means actors will not have to kiss anyone from outside their household or bubble, so that “crucial moments where two characters are kissing” can still go ahead while still adhering to social distancing measures.
Meanwhile, for scenes involving characters who live in the same household, many actors will be filming “in complete isolation from one another”, with camera trickery used to make it appear they’re actually closer than they are in reality.
“Our greatest challenge is that we have several family units, that’s the nature of EastEnders and soap,” said executive producer Jon Sen.
“Families who would be in the same household, so not at 2m distances, but obviously they are played by actors who are obeying social distancing, so there’s a huge challenge at the heart of it.
“So, when you are filming, the actor will be talking to space, essentially, and that will happen with the other actor, and then you’ll put them together and it will look like they are at the same table, so we’re doing that a lot.”
It was previously revealed that bosses had also introduced clear perspex screens, which are invisible to the soap’s cameras, which allow actors to sit closer than two metres away from each other but still follow government guidelines.
EastEnders went off air for the first time in its 35-year history in June when it ran out of episodes, which were recorded before the coronavirus pandemic shut down production in March.
Filming resumed in July when new safety measures were introduced, while it has also been confirmed coronavirus will feature in upcoming storylines.
The soap will return to BBC One on 7 September, with the action jumping forward three months from when we last saw the residents of Walford.