It remains utterly incomprehensible. That during the peak of the pandemic, grandparents met their new grandchildren through glass windows; friends sat two metres apart in parks; loved ones were forbidden to say goodbye to their dying relatives in hospitals, or attend their funerals.
That intensive care wards were so overwhelmed with inpatients that ambulances queued for hours outside; that whole swathes of care home residents died over a matter of days, and that for the majority of April 2020, 1,000 people in the UK died from Covid-19 every single day.
During this period, palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke spent time with the gravely ill, splitting her time between the hospice where she worked and Oxford’s strained Covid wards. Her acclaimed 2021 book, Breathtaking, chronicled her experiences – and, despite the deeply upsetting subject matter, the memoir was celebrated for drawing attention to the courage of both patients and NHS staff. Reviewers described it as “powerful, uplifting and even reassuring”, a “beautiful, blistering account” and “raw and unflinching”.
Now the book has been turned into a harrowing three-parter, which will be aired on ITV over three consecutive nights next week. The miniseries promises to be pretty hard going, combining real news footage with dramatised scenes depicting the experiences of a character based on Clarke – acute medicine consultant (a doctor who deals with conditions with severe symptoms, that develop quickly and may be life-threatening) and mother, Dr Abbey Henderson (Joanne Froggatt), who is working in a hospital. Here’s everything to know about the new series.
Who has made the show?
The series has been written by Rachel Clarke, along with Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty) and actor Prasanna Puwanarajah (Patrick Melrose), both of whom are also former medical professionals, and produced by Mercurio’s HTM Television (Trigger Point, Bloodlands, Stephen).
“There is so much misinformation and rewriting of history around what really happened inside our hospitals during the pandemic,” said Clarke. “The truth is, NHS staff gave everything they had in impossible conditions that sometimes cost them their lives.
“It is an honour to try and depict the courage and decency of my NHS colleagues on screen, and I’m so grateful to ITV and HTM Television for giving me the chance to show the public the truth.”
The series has been directed by award-winning filmmaker Craig Viveiros, whose TV credits include episodes of Endeavor (2013), Silent Witness (2014-2015) and The Watch (2021).
Viveiros said: “Shooting a large part of the miniseries in long, real-time sequences should make for captivating viewing and allow the audience to be immersed in the struggles our real-life heroes faced in the wards and emergency departments across the country.”
What is the release date?
Breathtaking will premiere on ITV on February 19. Its second and third episodes will air on February 20 and 21 respectively.
Who is starring in the series?
British actor Joanne Froggatt leads the series, playing doctor Abbey. Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe award-winner Froggatt is best-known for playing Anna Bates in Downton Abbey. She has also featured in a number of series including Liar (2017-2020), Sherwood (2022), and North Shore (2023).
Froggatt said: “I feel truly honoured to be playing Dr Abbey Henderson in Breathtaking. When I first read the incredible scripts they moved me to tears on many occasions. I felt so passionately that I had to be a part of telling this story, the real story, of what was really happening behind the closed doors of the hospitals during the pandemic.”
She stars alongside Lucy Montgomery (Dodger), George Georgiou (Game of Thrones), Georgia Goodman (Loki), Jodie McNee (Official Secrets), Mark Dexter (Industry), Bhav Joshi (Vigil) and Christopher Hatherall (The Long Shadow).
