You Clap For Me Now

During the COVID-19 pandemic we gathered outside our homes to #clapforourcarers and as I stood with my children clapping and banging on saucepans, it struck me that for perhaps the first time since the Windrush Generation we were suddenly grateful to the first-, second- and third-generation immigrants who do so many of our key worker jobs.

We know from recent history just how badly the Windrush Generation were treated once we decided we didn’t need them any more. So I wanted to make sure we still remembered our heroic key workers after the pandemic was but a distant memory.

I wrote You Clap For Me Now as a poem and worked with Creative Director Sachini Imbuldeniya and video editor Ruben Alvarado to turn it into a social film.

Filming in lockdown was tricky: we had to ask key workers to volunteer their (exceptionally busy) time, so we decided to ask each to simply recite a line of the poem to their own phones and send their video clips to us. We coached them on pronunciation to make sure the poem ‘flowed’ once each line was stitched together.

The above film is the result.

You Clap For Me Now gathered more than 300 million views worldwide from over 76 countries and was featured on ITV, BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio, CNN, NBC, China Global TV, Spanish, Italian, Canadian, Indian and Greek National TV, Al-Jazeera, Reuters, Press Association, The Guardian, Washington Post, The Sunday Times and more. It was selected by nursing groups to play in the atrium of North Middlesex Hospital to help reduce abuse towards nursinbg staff from patients and visitors.

And it was Officially Selected by the United Nations as one of its key messages of hope and solidarity during the global pandemic.