Dan Buckingham has been coming up with ingenious ways to film vulnerable people with disabilities while adhering to social distancing. While most other film companies were closed during levels 3 and 4 Dan managed to keep filming the long running TV series Attitude. He tells Lynn when the shutdown was coming they ramped up production to get footage in the door, then came up with ways to produce programmes with fresh footage but also by creatively re-using footage from past episodes to tell new stories about people with disability. See the films here www.attitudelive.com

"An exhilarating and harrowing exploration of contemporary masculinity" is how Breton Dukes' publishers describe his third short story collection, What Sort of Man. The Dunedin writer kept us waiting six years for this collection, then the corona virus scuppered the launch. But the book's out and the reviews are coming in. Lynn talks to Breton about the themes of contemporary masculinity in his short stories.

TV producer and actor Paul Yates is rearing to get back into the editing suite tomorrow, after weeks of enforced time away from it. He's one of the creatives behind the homegrown TV comedy Wellington Paranormal and he also acted in local drama Fresh Eggs that screened last year. The actor, writer, producer, director and science fiction nerd shares some of his favourite comedians with Lynn.

New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, is preparing to reopen this Thursday after a two month closure due to Covid-19.

A lot of hope is being placed on New Zealand's screen industry to help the country out of its financial mire. It's too soon to know if overseas filmmakers will see Aotearoa as a safe haven in the immediate post pandemic period, but The Actors' Program based in Auckland is confident that its graduates have a promising future. One of the tutors is Jess Sayer. She's also the winner of the 2020 Adam NZ Play Award. This Particular Room was described by the award Judges as "heartbreaking", "excellently crafted," "powerful and sophisticated" and "so realistic that it hurts"

One of the biggest Covid-19 casualties in the art world is the postponement of the Venice Art Biennale from 2021 until 2022. Italy has been one of the country's hardest hit by the pandemic, forcing it to postpone both the Contemporary Art Biennale and the Architecture Biennale that was to open later this year. For some it could be a blessing having more time, for others a disappointment because of all the work that goes into representing your country. Yuki Kihara the multi disciplinary artist representing NZ at Venice talks about the implications for her; and Michael Moynahan (Arts Council Chair) says the postponement was a good call.

In the coming weeks of self isolation, audio books will be a lifeline for many people, especially those traditional subscribers who're vision impaired. On the line is Theo Gibson who's the CEO and Creative Director of Audiobooks NZ, and one of his narrators, Romy Hooper.

Artists and performers who're struggling emotionally during COVID-19 now have access to a counselling service that up until now has been focused on helping our music industry. MusicHelps is extending its services to the broader arts community because of the unprecedented impact that COVID-19 has had on the performing arts. Lynn talks to Peter Dickens, the General Manager of MusicHelps.

Set on Vanuatu immediately after Cateogry 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam in March 2015, Mikaela Nyman's novel Sado is the story of an isolated community and its residents coping - and not - when put under extreme pressure. The book is published by VUP.

NZ on Air is promising those who rely on it for funding that it will be responsive and innovative over the weeks and months to come, with COVID-19 seeing planned productions around the country shutting down indefinitely. Cameron Harland is the funding body's new CEO. He only started on the job on Tuesday and says it is thinking hard about how it can do things differently through these tough times.