Harrowing scenes in ITV‘s present Breathtaking have been hailed by viewers because the drama laid naked the massive affect of the Covid pandemic on the NHS.
Traumatised medical doctors, nurses and sufferers shared how final evening’s primetime programme – based mostly on a e book by Dr Rachel Oxford – introduced again stark recollections of the primary coronavirus wave in March 2020.
Doctors and nurses responded by posting footage of the masks and PPE they needed to don when coping with over-crowded coronavirus wards and tackling tragedy – with one who misplaced her father saying: ‘I lived that nightmare.’
There was additionally criticism for then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Matt Hancock – as real-life footage and recreations had been blended within the present co-written by award-winning Jed Mercurio.
Daily Mail TV critic Christopher Stevens described the programme as ‘sufficient to carry on signs of dizziness and nausea’ – and plenty of viewers agreed, whereas sharing on-line their very own emotional recollections of the pandemic’s frontline.
Dr Abbey Henderson, an acute medication marketing consultant performed by Joanne Froggatt, exhibits painful marks from her PPE in new ITV drama sequence Breathtaking
ITV’s new drama Breathtaking delves into life in hospitals throughout the pandemic
This sequence makes use of information footage and archive audio from Covid press conferences to chart the progress of the illness from earliest circumstances to full lockdown.
Key scenes broadcast final evening highlighted a scarcity of respirator masks, with these accessible designed primarily for males with large noses and broad jaws.
Staff asking for options had been seen being instructed: ‘If you really need one, you may get one on Amazon – they’re about 300 quid.’
The present stars former Coronation Street and Downton Abbey actress Joanne Froggatt, who performs Dr Abbey Henderson – a marketing consultant annoyed by officers apparently permitting folks to die reasonably than defy Public Health England protocols.
And the startling scenes seem to have chimed with many frontline medics, sharing their responses and recollections from the peak of the well being disaster.
Mercurio, whose earlier TV hits embrace Cardiac Arrest and Line Of Duty, posted forward of final evening’s broadcast: ‘As a former junior hospital physician, I couldn’t be prouder of cowriting this 3-part drama paying tribute to the untold sacrifices of #NHS employees.’
There was a wave of response from medics suggesting their very own pandemic ordeals had been being mirrored on display.
Kathryn de Prudhoe, posting as a trauma knowledgeable therapist, shared a tribute to her coronavirus sufferer father Tony Clay, 60, from Leeds – described as ‘completely and totally dedicated to his household and grandchildren’.
She wrote on X, previously Twitter: ‘I lived that nightmare because the daughter of a person who caught and died from Covid in these early days.’
Temporary outreach nurse Kirstie shared a photograph of herself with the strains left by PPE obvious on her face, as she deliberated over whether or not to look at the programme.
She posted: ‘Not tonight, possibly not tomorrow, unsure I’ll…however seeing lots of people watching #BREATHTAKING.
‘This photograph breaks my coronary heart, the disappointment and exhaustion in my eyes. I nonetheless recall the ache on my face. I believe usually of the sufferers I cared for, the situations I skilled.
‘The feelings in these eyes nonetheless hang-out me as I embark on one other spherical of remedy. I’ve by no means been the identical since. Not fairly.’
Among these tuning in was physician Saleyha Ahsan, who posted footage from the pandemic of her time in PPE in addition to ideas on her father’s struggling and revelations of pandemic rule-breaking in Downing Street.
She wrote: ‘All the #BREATHTAKING stuff is making me keep in mind what I had buried – the reminiscence of what it was like, the worry, the brutality of all of it, the gov and civil service mendacity and partying, my sufferers, my dad.’
And gastroenterologist Dr Ajay M Verman shared pictures of himself with and with out PPE, including: ‘Throwback to March and April within the first lockdown on account of Covid-19 surges.
‘A extremely difficult and horrifying time. My spouse and I accomplished our wills in April 2020. My #Breathtaking moments.’
Dental surgeon Dr Vinay Raniga wrote: ‘In February 2020, I contracted COVID-19 while working at A&E at Northwick Park.
‘In March 2020, I used to be redeployed to the ICU frontline to avoid wasting lives. I lived out of a Holiday Inn for 4 months, working 12-hour shifts. It was traumatic however an honour to serve.’
Another poster sharing footage of her PPE-clad mom who ‘labored all through Covid-19 on her intensive care unit’, including: ‘I do not suppose I actually understood the depth of the trauma occurring till watching #BREATHTAKING.
‘My mum and her fellow NHS employees are fairly merely heroes.’
Dr Abbey Henderson, performed by Downton Abbey star Joanna Froggatt, fights again tears as she declares the affected person useless earlier than strolling again to her Covid ward
Last evening’s opener, known as Containment, covers the three vital weeks main as much as the unique March 2020 lockdown
During the episode Dr Abbey sees one man, 80 years outdated with a coronary heart situation, on a gurney in a retailer cabinet
Froggatt stated she was left shaken and tearful after studying the Breathtaking script.
She recalled: ‘Soon after I started studying the primary episode I began to cry.
‘That’s by no means occurred to me earlier than in 27 years studying scripts. Nothing I’ve been requested to be part of has affected me, or shocked me, in the best way this story did.’
The sequence was filmed over three flooring of a disused college constructing in Belfast final yr, with the rooms and corridors furnished to appear to be a busy hospital.
Before filming started Joanne and the remainder of the solid attended a medical bootcamp aimed toward educating them all the things from the proper method to placed on their PPE to tips on how to resuscitate sufferers.