The Story You Haven’t Been Told.

“Reading the scripts I was very moved and shocked…by what was really going on behind the closed doors of the hospitals here in the UK.

“The story the public was fed by the government through the media is very different from what was actually happening. And so I was really shocked.

“I actually cried just reading the scripts. I don’t think that’s happened to me before.”

Joanne Froggatt talking to me about her role as Dr Abbey Henderson in new three part ITV1 drama Breathtaking.

Screened in the UK across three nights next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb 19 to 21) and also on ITVx.

One of the most stunning pieces of screen drama I have seen in almost half a century of writing about television.

The devastating story of what NHS frontline staff – and their patients – really experienced during Covid.

And how that contrasted with the words of Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and others.

Based on Dr Rachel Clarke’s personal memoir of the greatest public health crisis in living memory and adapted for television by Rachel Clarke and former junior hospital doctors Jed Mercurio and Prasanna Puwanarajah.

Although the drama depicts even wider experiences in the NHS over a longer period than in the book and Abbey Henderson is a fictional character, albeit based on total reality.

As Joanne explained: “Abbey is based on both Rachel’s experiences during the pandemic but also those of many other doctors and nurses. She is a fictional character with many different stories incorporated into one person.

“But every scenario in the script is based on reality. Every patient’s story is based on something that happened somewhere in the UK.”

This is a role Joanne Froggatt was born to play. With every other cast member also playing a crucial part, however long their screen time.

It was an absolute privilege to read the scripts for Breathtaking and then spend a number of months conducting in depth interviews for ITV with those involved.

Some may feel they cannot watch this drama but as Rachel told me: “It absolutely is a story about life as well as death.”

Paying tribute to NHS staff, including those who lost their lives.

“I have never felt prouder to be a member of the NHS and a member of the human race than during the pandemic,” Rachel added.

“And that was because of the extraordinary qualities of the people I was surrounded by at work.

“That’s why I called the book ‘Breathtaking’. It’s the people who were breathtaking. They literally took my breath away by their goodness, strength and decency.”