TV Pick of the Week: Breathtaking - review by Yvette Huddleston

Adapted by Clarke with screenwriter Jed (Line of Duty) Mercurio and actor Prasanna Puwanarajah, both former doctors, it follows a small team in a fictional hospital during the early days of the pandemic. Joanne Froggatt plays consultant Abbey Henderson who heads up the team.

The storyline highlights the many challenges that NHS workers faced – the shortage of PPE (which the Government denied), the irresponsible decision to send possibly Covid-infected patients back to care homes, without testing them and with terrible consequences, and the inflexibility, and inadequacy, of NHS England guidelines which put many more people at risk. The drama is intercut throughout with footage of the likes of Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson giving reassurances and pronouncements which now, of course in the light of revelations during the Covid enquiry, ring very hollow.

While most of the action takes place in the hospital, we do also get a glimpse into the personal and family lives of Abbey and some of her staff. Abbey has a husband and two young children at home who she barely sees. Once the lockdown, implemented far too late, comes into force she moves into a budget hotel near the hospital in order to protect her family and her patients. One of the care workers in her team contracts Covid, almost certainly because of inadequate protective clothing and equipment, and is soon in intensive care fighting for her life. In a heart-breaking scene Abbey and a colleague turn off her life support machines, while her heartbroken husband and children, unable to visit her, have to stay at home.

Clinical staff are having to make agonising decisions about who to treat because of a shortage of beds, a young doctor, traumatized by events, questions whether she will stay in the profession. Chaos reigns all around them, while they continue diligently to do their jobs. Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists and citizen ‘journalists’ spread lies online about what is happening in hospitals.

Like the recent Mr Bates vs the Post Office, this searing drama focuses on the human stories of a huge scandal. It demonstrates unequivocally the devastating effects of government policy on those working on the ground – and how incompetence and political manoeuvring led to loss of life on a monumental scale.