Nadia Sawalha has vowed ‘Loose Women’ will return to television screens during the coronavirus lockdown.
The 55-year-old actress is adamant the ITV chat show won’t "be beaten" by the global pandemic after the show was temporarily axed last month to limit the number of people coming into contact in the studio.
Speaking is quoted by the Daily Mirror newspaper as saying: "We cannot be beaten! We must not! If there’s any way ITV can get it on, I’m sure they will.
"It’s one of their most popular daytime shows. Now, more than ever, people want relatability."
She also claimed the stars – formed of a rotating panel, including Nadia, Stacey Solomon, and Janet Street-Porter, as well as show anchors Andrea McLean and Ruth Langsford, among others – are "absolutely yearning" to return to TV screens.
ITV pulled live ‘Loose Women’ broadcasts nearly a month ago.
A statement said at the time: "ITV Daytime has taken the decision to stop broadcasting ‘Lorraine’ and ‘Loose Women’ live from Monday 23rd March. This decision has been made to minimise the number of staff travelling in and out of our studios and working together on shift at any one time.
"From Monday we will be running an extended version of ‘Good Morning Britain’ from 6am until 10am. At 9am Lorraine Kelly will join Piers in the ‘GMB’ studio for the last hour and then hand straight over to the ‘This Morning’ studio with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby as usual running from 10am until 12.30pm. We will then run some of our most favourite repeat episodes of ‘Loose Women’ from 12.30pm to 1.30pm to give viewers something to smile about each day at lunchtime."
Last week, ‘Loose Women’ returned for a one-off special dedicated to the NHS frontline staff who are saving the lives of those affected by the contagious respiratory disease.
Christine Lampard, Brenda Edwards, Stacey and Nadia each filmed the show from their own homes last Thursday (16.04.20) to share stories from Covid-19 survivors and their families.
However, having cameras rigged in their homes frightened Nadia as they were controlled by crew members in the ITV studio.
The former ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ housemate quipped: "It was like ‘Big Brother’. It was remote controlled by the TV centre.
"I got paranoid thinking, ‘What if they’re all listening to me?’ "