Breathtaking creator explains why ITV drama is a "largely untold story"
ITV's new COVID-19 drama shifts the focus for a more accurate representation of the pandemic's impact.
ITV's COVID-19 drama Breathtaking arrives on ITV1 and ITVX today (Monday 19th February), with Joanne Froggatt leading the cast as Dr Abbey Henderson.
Froggatt's character may be fictional, but the scenes depicted in the drama are based on very real experiences, adapted from Dr Rachel Clarke's personal memoir.
Speaking of the series, Dr Clarke explained how it tackles uncharted territory when it comes to depicting the pandemic on screen, and why that was important.
"I wanted this drama to be located not primarily in intensive care but on the ordinary medical wards of the hospital. Because that is actually where the vast majority of people had died from COVID inside the NHS and it is a largely untold story," she said.
She added: "People are very familiar with the idea that the epicentre of COVID inside our hospitals was intensive care. I would argue it wasn't. There were many more patients with COVID on ordinary medical wards where they'd had very insubstantial PPE and often not the same degree of support that perhaps intensive care teams had.
"So I wanted Abbey to be plunged into this much less well-known, much less talked about, part of the hospital. The ordinary medical wards where she actually had almost nothing with which to treat the patients. She had oxygen, a paper mask, a plastic pinny and a pair of gloves. That is not much to face a deadly virus."
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Of course, having to deal with such an unprecedented event with so few resources has an impact on Abbey, with Clarke going on to say that "she goes on an astonishing journey to places, actions and behaviours she would never have imagined for a millisecond she might have been capable of before COVID hit her hospital".
The three-parter not only features a talented cast, it's also been produced by Clarke herself, along with Line of Duty's Jed Mercurio and actor Prasanna Puwanarajah (Ten Percent), both of whom are former junior doctors.
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Breathtaking is available now on ITVX and starts Monday 19th February at 9pm on ITV1. Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or take a look at the rest of our Drama coverage.
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