TV review: Cocooned's tale of lockdown told with streak of black humour

Ken Wardrop's documentary on RTÉ One focused on elderly Irish people through the various stages of the Covid restrictions 

A scene from the Cocooned documentary on RTÉ One. 

There’s a terrific sweetness to Ken Wardrop’s documentaries, and Cocooned (RTÉ One) continues in that vein. Wardrop (Undressing My Mother, His & Hers, etc)
shows respect, fondness and curiosity for his subjects: a group of elderly Irish, sequestered away under Government instruction during Covid-19.

Opening and closing with drone shots of an eerily empty Dublin – 28 Days Later made real – it begins with Leo Varadkar’s portentous St Patrick’s Day 2020 speech and ends with the second lockdown last January.