A glance at this weekend's TV schedule will reveal four shows in coveted prime time slots - This Time with Alan Partridge, Catchphrase, I Can See Your Voice and Game Of Talent.

And they have one thing in common - all of them were filmed at the Maidstone Studios.

A production studio with a storied legacy, the building on Vinters Business Park is fast becoming a favourite spot in 2021 for production companies to film their audience-amassing shows for the likes of the BBC and ITV.

But track back to just over a year ago and things were looking decidedly bleaker.

On March 2, the studio found itself at ground zero of the then-fledgling coronavirus pandemic, with Kent's first case confirmed to be an employee on site.

Home to around 40 businesses, the person who contracted the virus was located in the North East London Foundation Trust NHS office suite on the first floor.

At the time the UK only had 39 cases, and few could have predicted the sizeable impact it would have on every aspect of our lives.

Shortly after KentOnline broke the news, stores across the county town were cleared of hand sanitiser as anxieties about catching the virus spread.

As March progressed and it became clear Covid-19 wasn't going anywhere, the studios were forced to shut their doors and send staff home, putting an indefinite hold on the filming of programmes.

Josephine Clark, commercial manager at Maidstone Studios, recalls being "in shock" along with the rest of the nation, as life came to a sudden standstill.

But when the studios were finally able to reopen fully on July 1, she said the entire team was streets ahead when it came to preparing to film under Covid-19 conditions.

She said: "We at Maidstone Studios were all over 2 metre distancing, hand sanitisers, perspex screens - we were all over that so much earlier than anybody else.

"When everything did open up we were one of the first studios, if not the first, to open up post lockdown - it's always quite scary being the first or one of the first because you're setting a standard for the rest of the industry.

"You've just got to be pragmatic and make sure everything is covered."

Part of Josephine's job is to sell the Maidstone Studios to prospective production companies, and was instrumental in taking the studio from being closed down during the first lockdown to hogging British TV's envied prime time slots.

She said: "On Friday night we've got This Time with Alan Partridge, and then on Saturday night we have Catchphrase followed by I Can See Your Voice and Game of Talent.

"So that's about four hours every week on prime time, which is amazing."

London has had a monopoly over film and TV production for a long time, but Josephine believes the winds might be changing.

Since the pandemic struck there has been a business re-evaluation of the capital.

As businesses consider closing down their offices in favour of home working, more companies are looking towards the home counties as a place to conduct their work, free from the eye-watering costs of being in London but close enough to commute in if needed.

Josephine said: "I don't think you necessarily have to be in London anymore.

"What I find is that when people do drive, here they go, "oh my gosh, this is so much closer than I thought it would be", and I think opinions are changing.

"I don't think you necessarily have to be in London anymore..."

"Sometimes I think people think Kent's almost France and it's not."

Minutes away from the M20, the studio is easily accessible by crew and stars alike.

And according to Hannah Chambers, technical manager at the studio, one famous presenter even took advantage of a nearby golf course hours filming began.

She said: "That was a particular presenter who was enjoying his golf game before he came in and did the show, and you just can't get out in London.

"You can't have that kind of stress free 'get a lot done in a day' kind of thing, because travelling is such a nightmare."

Having worked freelance in London for several years, Hannah knows first-hand the pressures of London production studios.

But the less hectic atmosphere of the Kent-based studio means every aspect of the production feels less rushed.

She said: "At The London Studios, there would be people who get on five shows in a single day and they just looked dead at the end of it.

"They could do Good Morning Britain, This Morning, Lorraine, Loose Women, and then Graham Norton in the evening, and they'd just be a shadow of themselves.

"So having a nice place to work, I think affects everybody on the production in a positive way."

Another positive consequence of Kent's more rural location, she said, means TV's biggest stars are not being "hounded by paparazzi" outside the building, as they often would be in London.

And of late the studio has become something of a star magnet - earlier this year the two studios were being used at the same time, with Steve Coogan in one for This Time with Alan Partridge and Paddy McGuinness in the other for I Can See Your Voice.

Nobody knows the delicate balance of support two simultaneous productions better than Gavin Roberts, Maidstone Studios' studio runner.

Gavin took UCA's Television Production degree, which is based at the studio, before throwing himself into the busy profession in and around set.

Having also worked in London, he can feel a real difference in culture which spreads from Maidstone Studios' employees to the visiting production companies.

He said: "It's more like a family here rather than a commercial studio, because the people like coming back to us because it's very friendly.

"We're not London, so we do something different in the sense that we want people to really feel welcome and loved and happy."

Plans to bring even more film and TV production to Kent are on the cards with the planned development of an Ashford film studio linked to Netflix, Amazon and HBO, which has been delayed by a year due to the pandemic.

Josephine believes the demand for good film and TV shows isn't going anywhere, and that Kent will play an even larger role in the future.

She said: "I just think drama and TV should thrive in Kent.

"We've got fabulous seasides, fabulous seaside towns, brilliant country - we've got it all. I really do think we've got it all."

Read more: All the latest news from Maidstone