It is early 2020, and Tom Kerridge is adding a fourth pub to the list of businesses he wants to support. The Black Bull in Stirlingshire has been serving the villagers of Gartmore for more than 200 years. Struggling to survive, the pub was put on the market and 250 locals clubbed together to buy it. In an impressive display of community spirit, the pub is almost entirely staffed by volunteers. The management team have big plans, including the renovation of six bedrooms to attract tourists. Tom worries that a voluntary workforce could tire of mopping floors, pulling pints and making beds. Tom recommends they add paid professionals to the team, but recruitment proves a tricky business. In south London’s Golden Anchor, Tom needs to convince Lana to push ahead with the modernisation of her once-thriving pub. For inspiration, he takes her to meet the enterprising landlord of the nearby Prince of Peckham pub and enlists Eve, his sister-in-law, to push ahead with refurbishments. Miles and Lotte, the tied tenants of the Prince Albert in Stroud, are struggling to make a living from their popular music pub. Tom raises the issue of high beer prices with the boss of the company which owns the pub and urges Miles and Lotte to offer food to customers to help turn a profit. The historic White Hart in Chilsworthy, Cornwall, can’t survive on local trade alone, so landlords Amy and Ian are gambling on major building work to transform it into a destination pub. But it is a race against time to get the work completed in time for Cornwall’s famous St Piran’s Day celebrations. Just as the hard work in all four pubs seems to be paying off, the pandemic strikes Britain. Now every pub in Britain faces a fight for survival.
Coronavirus is spreading and the British public are told to stay away from pubs. Tom and the landlords he has been supporting face a moral dilemma. Do they keep trying to trade or do they close their doors to fight the virus? On Friday 20 March 2020, the decision is taken out of their hands when the prime minister tells all pubs to close until further notice. Tom started this journey to save four pubs from going under - now every pub in Britain, his own included, finds themselves in a fight for survival. Tom stays in touch with the pubs as they navigate lockdown, while also working out how to save his own businesses. In response to the crisis, Tom sets up a charity providing free meals to frontline workers. The pubs record their experiences on home video. It is eerily quiet living above an empty pub but at least there’s beer on tap while it lasts. They also find ways to serve their communities, offering discounted takeaway food and, at The White Hart in Cornwall, essential groceries to people isolating in the community. Tom sees lockdown as an opportunity for landlords to reboot their business plans. For the tenants of the Prince Albert in Stroud, this is the perfect time to renegotiate terms with their pub company. By June, preparations are underway for reopening. No-one is sure how long it will be before the traditional pub experience is possible but, for now, they must follow Covid-safe rules. Tom has hardly heard from one of the pubs and is worried it won’t reopen. Finally, after 106 days closed, Britain’s pubs are allowed to welcome back customers. For roughly half of Britain’s pubs that do reopen, it is cause for celebration. But even they aren’t out of the woods yet.
