Come on, science boffins, get a vaccine sorted so the arts sector can bring back the fun we’re all desperately missing

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but the idea of telling people that they must put their dreams on hold indefinitely breaks my heart, writes Jenny Eclair

Sarah Lamb and Edward Watson in Christopher Wheeldon’s new ballet, ‘Electric Counterpoint’ © Peter MacDiarmid/Getty Images (Peter MacDiarmid/Getty)

I don’t suppose my career has ever been viable on paper. No one these days would advise any student to “have a bash at drama school and then see where it takes you”, and yet since I started working at the age of 21, I’ve paid the government over a million pounds in taxes, which seems pretty viable to me.

I have also, during my working life, spent vast sums of money on clothes, make-up, hair, theatre and cinema tickets, cabs, hire cars, trains, hotels, drinks, and meals. In good times I have splashed my cash around in fancy restaurants and designer shops, buoyed up the travel industry both in this country and abroad, and treated my loved ones. In tough times, I still paid my bills and I never once expected a paid holiday.