Help viewers "broken" by "thought-provoking" Channel 4 COVID drama
The one-off special takes viewers inside a care home at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Viewers of Channel 4's Help are still processing the events of the hard-hitting coronavirus drama, which follows the story of a carer and one of her closest patients during the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.
Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) plays Sarah, a carer at Liverpool's fictional Bright Sky Homes, who works particularly closely with early onset Alzheimer's sufferer Tony (Line of Duty's Stephen Graham).
- You can hear Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham talking to RT's Jane Garvey on the Radio Times Podcast
Sarah's success with Tony both improves his quality of life and restores her own self-belief, but when the pandemic begins tearing through care homes in the UK, staff are pushed to their limits as they desperately attempt to protect their patients.
The drama received glowing praise from critics – including a four-star rating in RadioTimes.com's Help review – and audiences had a similarly strong reaction.
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We asked our readers to weigh in with their thoughts on the one-off drama, written by superstar Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials), and they were unanimous in their positivity.
Debbie B Spence tweeted that the feature-length programme was "brilliant" and added that it was "great to see so many excellent Northern actors".
Dr Anne-Marie Wright said that she was "totally broken" by the drama. "I felt grief, rage, fear and moments of pure joy," she tweeted. "Help was superb."
Ruth Fryman also expressed "anger" over the suffering of care home patients and staff, while another RadioTimes.com reader described Help as an "outstanding and thought-provoking piece of television".
The Care Workers' Charity, which supports current and former care workers by providing crisis grants, gave the programme its full support.
"As the UK's Charity for the #socialcare workforce, we are proud to see #socialcare workers being represented in this incredible drama," the organisation shared.
Criticism of the programme was minimal, although Siobhan O'Neill did feel that Thorne's ending was "stretching believability and detracted from the impact up to that point".
Nevertheless, she agreed that Comer, Graham and their co-stars are "exceptional actors", while also praising the direction from Marc Munden, who previously worked with Channel 4 on Utopia and National Treasure.
Help is available to stream on All 4. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.
Authors
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
