Breathtaking viewers left distraught over emotional ITV Covid-19 drama
20 February 2024, 12:23
Breathtaking is the new ITV three-part drama based on the real life experiences of NHS workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
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ITV drama Breathtaking has left viewers in tears over the heartbreaking portrayal of the Covid-19 pandemic, told through the eyes of NHS frontline workers during the outbreak.
Joanna Froggatt, best known for Downton Abbey, plays the main character of Dr Abbey Henderson who attempts to adapt to the chaotic scenes on her unit as she and her team deal with PPE shortages, outdated guidelines and the risk of contracting the virus themselves.
The three episodes will air over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week but all episodes are now available on ITVX to stream, and people who have watched ahead have been left distraught by the scenes.
Many healthcare workers who endured the traumatic time on the wards have also been reflecting on the series and what their experience during the outbreak was like.
One person commented on X (formerly Twitter): "I can’t stop crying. We will never forgive and we will never forget. #BREATHTAKING."
Another write: "Watching #BREATHTAKING in floods of tears! As someone who was with a frontline team it all seems very very surreal! No PPE! No guidance! Only hot zones are important … thankful to still be here to be astounded by this show! Watching on thinking wow they really are right."
A third shared: "Watching #BREATHTAKING I'm speechless and in tears to be honest."
A fourth commented: "I've had to pause it 3x to collect my own breath... Tears pouring. Outstanding work ... hard to watch. #BREATHTAKING."
The series Breathtaking is based on the book of the same name by Dr Rachel Clarke, who worked on the frontline during the pandemic.
Speaking about the series ahead of the first episode airing, Rachel said she was feeling "nervous, proud, apprehensive and excited" as she "felt a huge weight of responsibility."
Rachel told the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund: "I feel it’s an opportunity to tell the story on screen, to help the public understand what NHS staff went through and how scarring the experience was.
"NHS staff were exposed to a disease that could kill them, and many did get infected and die. It’s scandalous when you reflect back on the PPE situation, how there wasn’t enough, or how staff were told they were safe when they were issued with substandard PPE. I hope the series shines a light on that. It needs to be addressed – if we don’t, what will happen in the next pandemic?"
As well as Rachel, the team that made Breathtaking into the ITV series used many medical advisors on set to help them make the portrayal of this time as accurate as possible.
Joanne Froggatt, who plays fictional character Abbey, said on filming: "Rachel herself and other medical advisors were on hand 24/7. 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."
In an interview with Radio Times, she reflected: "The ethos was this has to be the most realistic portrayal of medicine we've ever seen on television, 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."
The actress went on to add that Breathtaking "isn't just a retelling of COVID" and that it "isn't the retelling of the story we all lived," before adding: "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."
