It was one of the hardest-hitting series in recent memory, powerfully showcasing how hundreds of Post Office staff were wrongfully accused of theft and fraud in a mass miscarriage of justice.
But the writers of ITV’s next masterpiece think their new creation — set to air at the end of February — could unleash the same national outcry as Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
That’s their hope, anyway.
Written by Line of Duty’s Jed Mercurio, Breathtaking lays bare the horrors suffered by NHS staff during Covid’s darkest days through the eyes of one fictional doctor.
Although Joanna Froggatt’s character is made-up, the powerful scenes are not. The Downton Abbey star revealed she cried reading the scripts, admitting: ‘I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before.’ Some real-life stories were even cut from the 3-part series because they were so ‘appalling’.
Breathtaking is adapted from a book of the same name, authored by NHS palliative care doctor Dr Rachel Clarke, who recounted her eye-opening experience of being on the frontline during the pandemic.
Breathtaking, starring Joanne Froggatt in the lead role of an overworked NHS medic, is an upcoming three part drama covering the staff and patients on a Covid ward in the early days of the pandemic
Based on a book of the same by the same name by NHS palliative care doctor Dr Rachel Clarke, the author, who co-wrote the TV adaptation said she wanted to show the public what it was really like for patients and staff in the NHS during Covid
In one of Breathtaking’s scenes Froggatt’s character is seen preparing for her shift but the PPE she’s trying on doesn’t fit as it’s been designed for a man. Joanne Froggatt pictured in London in October
In one scene, set on March 3 2020 — weeks before Britain was plunged into its first lockdown, Froggatt’s Dr Abbey Henderson character is seen preparing for her shift as broadcasters warn about a new pathogen called coronavirus.
The PPE she’s trying on doesn’t fit because it’s been designed for a man.
In the background, a colleague remarks she can buy her own equipment online.
Such scenes echo the realities for thousands of female medics, who were left with abrasions on their face from masks being too tight.
As patients start to die from the virus amid the ever-going battle to secure PPE, the real voices of ex-health secretary Matt Hancock and former PM Boris Johnson are heard boasting about how well the UK is prepared for the disease.
And much-like Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Breathtaking’s creators hope the impact will go far beyond the screen and enact change in the real world.
It comes at a poignant time for the nation’s recollection of the pandemic, with Brits having spent the last few months hearing from scientists and ministers in the Covid Inquiry about how they made decisions which impacted everyone’s lives.
But the minds behind Breathtaking know it is one thing to hear about shoddy PPE not fitting, of unprotected NHS workers dying of the virus, of families unable to see their loved ones one last time due to quarantine restrictions, and another to see it played out before your eyes.
Such is the power in these moments that Froggatt told The Times she cried while reading the script.
With a mind to the success of Mr Bates v the Post Office, Dr Clarke said she wanted to show the public what it was really like for patients and staff in the NHS during the pandemic as some seek to downplay the crisis.
‘There have been a huge number of people saying, why has it taken a television drama to make people care about the Post Office scandal,’ she said.
‘And I don’t think it’s surprising in the slightest that it took storytelling television to do this, because we’re all so effortlessly capable of clocking something that is bad and then moving swiftly on.
‘In my head I have this one simple, almost desperate desire, and that was simply to show the public what it was like for staff and patients inside an NHS hospital.
‘I wanted to take the viewer by the hand into the Covid ward, so that they felt and heard and kind of smelt and experienced what it was truly like
‘There’s a big chunk of the population and politicians as well who want us to believe as a society that lockdowns weren’t necessary, that Covid was just a mild cold, that we didn’t need to be vaccinated, it was all a “scamdemic”‘.
She added that if we don’t learn from Covid there’s a risk of the nation making the same mistakes when the next pandemic strikes.
And there’s one group, and indeed one person, who Dr Clarke wants to watch the show in particular.
‘What I’d dearly love is for Boris Johnson and all of those individuals who failed to take the tough decisions that could have reduced our death toll by tens of thousands of people… to reflect on that and feel remorse for not taking those decisions and trying to do the cheap, populist, crowd-pleasing thing rather than taking the tough decisions that actually were necessary,’ she said.
Mercurio added, with a nod to the hit drama Line of Duty and its similar theme of the standards we expect in those who hold public office, that it’s up to the British public on what kind of country they wanted and what kind of people occupy its high offices.
‘What we’ve seen in the Post Office scandal, the dramatist lights the match but it’s the public that carries the fire,’ he said.
Another of the show’s writers, actor and former doctor Prasanna Puwanarajah also said that the writers aren’t interested in sensationalising Covid.
Froggatt, who will play the role of fictional hospital medic Dr Abbey Henderson, said she cried while reading the script
Writer, Jed Mercurio of Line of Duty fame, said Breathtaking followed a similar theme of the standards we expect in those who hold public office. Here Mercurio is pictured receiving his OBE medal in February 2022
Prasanna Puwanarajah, who played journalist Martin Bashir in the season 5 on Netflix’s royal drama ‘The Crown’ is another writer behind Breathtaking. Pictured here in London in November 2022.
He said there were some real-life scenes they left out, with them being so ‘appalling’ they feared it might discredit the narrative with audiences.
While the subject matter is naturally grim and even divisive, with Froggatt’s character at one point spat at by a Covid-denier, it’s not all doom and gloom.
Breathtaking will also feature the moments of kindness in the pandemic, of the public donating pizza to NHS staff and of children making facemasks, and of healthcare staff doing all they can to do the best for their patients.
But, undeniably, there is a lot of anger in the show towards how many aspects of the pandemic were handled, such as the catastrophic decision to empty Covid-infected patients into care homes.
It’s not the only drama to touch on the subject of how Britain was hit by Covid and failures to protect those on the frontline.
In 2021, Channel 4 drama Help, starring Jodie Comer as a care worker in a fictional Liverpool care home, shone a light on how care homes fared during the pandemic.
During the show, Covid is brought into the care home by one of the ‘bed-blockers’ the hospital delivered in a bid to free space for the increasing number of patients being diagnosed with the virus.
In one particularly poignant moment, the ambulance crew who brought the patient asks where the staff’s masks were, to which staff reply: ‘We were told we didn’t need them.’ The virus then rapidly sweeps through the residents.
The four-part series tells the story of a long-running campaign to expose the Horizon IT system scandal, in which hundreds of Post Office staff were wrongfully accused of theft and fraud(L-R: Julie Hesmondhalgh as Suzanne Sercombe, Toby Jones as Alan Bates, Monica Dolan as Jo Hamilton and Asif Khan as Mohammad Sabir)
TV’s role in highlighting real-world tragedy, and potentially bringing about long-awaited justice, was recently highlighted by the success of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which covered the Horizon IT system scandal and its victims.
Millions tuned in to watch the four-part series.
Such was the public’s interest in the scandal that it prompted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reconsider ways to finally compensate all wrongly accused postmasters, something campaigners had struggled to do for years.
Victims of the scandal have been sharing their heartbreaking stories of being wrongly branded as thieves.
The drama’s real-world success has sparked calls for a similar show to be made about the infected blood scandal.
Victims and their surviving relatives have been fighting years for greater recognition of the scandal which saw thousands of patients infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
Compensation payments to victims and their families could reportedly cost between £5billion to £22billion.
But with many yet to receive any money and the outcome of the inquiry delayed until May, victims’ families are hoping that a TV drama could be made to bring awareness to the case.
