Jane Tuckwell

ODDLY, the day I interviewed Jane Tuckwell was also the day I started taking the coronavirus seriously. It was late February – we wanted the interview sorted early before Badminton’s new director became frantically busy with the event’s final build-up – and BBC Radio 4 was non-stop Covid-19 as I drove through pelting rain to Gloucestershire.

Dashing into the warm welcome of the office Jane shares with commercial director Andrew Tucker, it felt like the weather was more likely to kibosh this spring’s British five-star. But just three weeks later, the event became an inevitable casualty of the pandemic.

Back in February, Jane said that cancellations are “the toughest times” of working at Badminton. On the phone six weeks later, she reflects on how this year differs to previous cancellations.

“Cancellation is a terrible thing, it removes enjoyment from people’s lives and it’s so devastating because of all the people who are commercially involved,” she says. “But apart from the horrendous affect