As the country’s pubs remain closed, Pat Nolan spoke to a few prominent publicans about how they’re coping with the enforced idleness, how they’re using this hiatus to plan ahead and about their thoughts for the future of what may be a very different pub to the one we’ve been used to.

Reports from mainland China indicate that some 70% of its bars and restaurants are now open again. One outlet there, the award-winning Hope & Sesame, has shared its marketing experience and its experience of the Covid-19 closedown in the hope of offering some useful insights to pubs here in the West presently experiencing lockdown but who want to give their eventual reopening the best chance it can get.