Joanne Froggatt on Breathtaking: "This isn't just a retelling of COVID"

"I've welled up before, amazing scripts do hit you, but I was sat with tears streaming down my face at one point," she added. "It was so unbelievably affecting."

It's a departure from the crime and mystery thrillers that have come to define Froggatt's career of late, such as Liar and Angela Black – both of which were written by Harry and Jack Williams, who are renowned for their twisty-turny plots – and of course her role as humble housemaid Anna Bates in international smash hit Downton Abbey.

But it was precisely that distinction that appealed to her.

"When [director] Craig [Viveiros, who also directed Angela Black] called me about Breathtaking and said would you be interested, I was like, 'Yes, this sounds exactly like what I've been waiting for.' I had this overwhelming urge to be a part of this story.

"It felt so authentic and so truthful. I was just like, 'Wow, this needs to be out there. We all need to know about it.'"

Froggatt leads the cast as Dr Abbey Henderson, an acute medicine consultant who is a "fictional character". But the impossible conditions she's forced to work in during the outbreak will be intensely familiar to swathes of medical professionals, courtesy of meticulously researched writing by Clarke, Line of Duty's Jed Mercurio and actor Prasanna Puwanarajah (The Crown, Payback) – both of whom also used to be doctors.

"Rachel herself and other medical advisors were on hand 24/7," explained Froggatt. "They put us through a sort of medical bootcamp, and we had a team of ICU nurses that came in to advise as well. They were integral to our performances."

The production design on Breathtaking is also so convincing that you truly believe you've been catapulted into the midst of a hospital that is creaking at the seams as the demands of the pandemic grow with each passing moment.

"The ethos was this has to be the most realistic portrayal of medicine we've ever seen on television," said Froggatt. "And there were so many times on set where me and the other cast members and crew just went, ‘God, this feels so real, doesn't it? It just feels so real.' It really stopped you in your tracks."

Did she find it jarring to step back into the mindset of masks and talk of "flattening the curve" – words that became part of our vernacular for more than two years.

"It was incredibly surreal at times," she said. "It did bring a lot back for all of us. How could it not? Some people on our cast and crew had lost loved ones during the pandemic to COVID, so it was an intense experience."

But while the quality of Breathtaking isn't in any doubt, there will be people for whom a drama about COVID holds no interest. It'll hit too close to home for some – it is an exceptionally challenging watch, with three episodes the limit of what I could stomach – while others remain fatigued by any talk of the pandemic, instead preferring to immerse themselves in stories that are a source of escapism.

"Of course that's absolutely warranted and understood," nodded Froggatt. "But I will say to those people that do feel able to watch it, please don't look away because this isn't just a retelling of COVID. This isn't the retelling of the story we all lived.

"I hadn't had any dealings with hospitals during the pandemic, I was one of the fortunate people that didn't, so I had no comprehension of what was really happening. What we were being told was very different to the reality that was being lived."

The lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for the doctors and nurses who were in the eye of the storm is consistently spotlighted throughout Breathtaking, with devastating consequences for some – over 850 health and social care workers lost their lives to COVID.

"There was a lack of transparency, which is the nice way of putting it, from our government," remarked Froggatt. "They were saying, 'Oh no, there's no problem with PPE.' When yes, yes there was. 'Care homes are ring-fenced.' No, they weren't. 'Yes, testing is fine.' No, it wasn't. That is the really difficult part.

"Nobody expects anything to go smoothly in an unprecedented pandemic. I certainly wouldn't want to be leading the country, but what you can do is be transparent with the public. Yes, the government would have come under some flak at the time for not being prepared, having seen what was happening in Europe beforehand, and not having enough PPE, but it could have saved so many lives.

"People have to be made aware of that. It's not OK. We need transparency, especially in times of great need."

But as well as holding the government to account for what it did or did not do, Breathtaking is also a tribute to those warrior-like doctors and nurses who did everything in their power to support their patients, both through medical treatment and small acts of kindness.

In one scene, a nurse applies make-up to a woman who is leaving hospital after completing her cancer treatment. In another, a doctor plays the violin for a musician who is dying of COVID.

Without those interactions, which are all based on true accounts, viewers would be dragged down to pitch-black depths without any means of resurfacing. But those moments are a life raft.

"It's a story about their humanity and how much they cared for and supported their patients, sometimes in their last days, which I hope will give some comfort to people if they were unfortunate enough to have lost someone during the pandemic," said Froggatt. "Not being able to be there, to know that somebody was there holding their hand, that these people really cared about the patients, that's why they went to work every day."

Of course Froggatt is well-acquainted with navigating punishing material. Female trauma has been a key theme in much of her work, with many of the characters she's played victims of physical and sexual violence, including in the aforementioned Liar, Angela Black and Downton Abbey.

"It's something that doesn't go over my head at all," she said. "I have played a lot of characters that have been through trauma. I think those stories are really, really important, and I stand by every production I've done that has any sort of traumatic event at the heart of it, because I would only do it if I believed in it. I wouldn't do it if I felt it was inappropriate or gratuitous, if it wasn't for the right reasons.

"But having said that, I have also made a sort of turning point to move away from that as well because I've very much visited that territory. Abbey's a very different character. She's part of a world trauma, and of course she's traumatised by that, but that's got nothing to do with her being female. We could just as easily be following a male doctor and have the same story experience. But the things I'm looking at now are more like women behaving badly. I think we could do with more of that, like Griselda. I'm really liking that shift."

Would she like to play a cartel boss if the opportunity arose?

"Oh yeah!" she exclaimed. "Who wouldn't? I would love to do that. Love, love, love. That's definitely on the list. I'd also love to do a western, and to do some more comedy. And that's the fun of what I do, you get to play every day and discover new characters."

For that reason, Froggatt enjoys looking ahead rather than retracing her steps – "I don't really look backwards that much. I'm like, 'What's next?'" – although she did make an exception for Anna Bates, a character who Downton fans took into their hearts.

"She was a lovely character to revisit because she was a lovely headspace to be in and a good person, and I had great storylines to play," she said.

"I love to be a part of telling stories that people care about, that mean something. It's the most wonderful, wonderful thing in the world to have somebody come and speak to me after a job and be candid with me and tell me something about their life experiences, and that they felt their feelings have been expressed in some small way. That is more than you can ask for as an actor."

Breathtaking is likely to encourage a similar response when it arrives on people's screens.

"If you are able to watch, please don't look away," she said, reemphasising her previous appeal. "I'd love audiences to watch and see, and for our NHS frontline workers to feel seen and heard."

Does Froggatt believe it can reach the levels achieved by Mr Bates vs The Post Office?

"I hope so," she said. "Obviously Mr Bates was incredible. It's such an amazing, amazing thing to achieve. I've certainly not seen a response like that from a TV drama before. And so you can never second-guess these things.

"But I would hope it would go some way towards that."

Breathtaking starts Monday 19th February at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX. Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or take a look at the rest of our Drama coverage.

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