An event to mark April Fools’ Day: at the Abattoir Arms in Ditchling Road, Brighton [had been booked] from 4pm on the First of April, 2020. Although not a lot [was due to] happen - maybe a couple of us [would have been] sitting down with a pint and a slice of pizza to watch YouTube videos on an iPad. But not even that happened. On March 23rd, 2020 a 'lockdown' began in England due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

One origin of our April Fools’ Day celebration lies in the Medieval French Feast of Fools, which had been celebrated around the New Year but had then got lost when ecclesiastical paranoia and official calendars had decided to move our marking of every subsequent new year back from March/April to December/January. These facts can further be explored in two Wikipedia articles,

Feast of Fools - and - April Fools' Day.

But, essentially, it all began with the acknowledgement of Christian notions of humility (such as ‘the last shall be first’) through widespread role reversals in the social order for just one day of the year: when the rich would be serving banquets to the poor; when fools would be crowned as kings or popes; and when powerful men would be expected to suffer with some alacrity any mockery hurled at them by any passing beggar. And in Twentieth Century Britain there began a new tradition: By professionals in the mass media, fake (often absurd) news items tend to be planted on the First day of April in a morning news bulletin, in the hope that some of them will be believed, see the BBC on April Fools' Day.

Throughout the year Patrick Cohen’s job with the BBC or Channel 4 Television [we can’t say which] requires him to reply politely to enthusiastic members of the public who regularly approach the BBC and/or Channel 4 with some ‘great new idea for a television programme’. Most of these approaches are simply ignored, but some of the more persistent ones require letters to be written that will thank them for their suggestion but regretfully inform them that no one’s even remotely interested. However, once each year, Patrick sends out an acceptance letter on official stationery to the author of absolutely the worst idea he has had the misfortune to have seen during the previous twelve months. That letter will offer a commission with a budget of several millions to produce that remarkable programme. All the recipient has to do is turn up at Patrick's office on the morning of April 1st where further instructions will be issued.

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