A HAGLEY doctor who worked on the frontline during the Covid has given his verdict on the first episode of a new hard-hitting TV drama about the pandemic.
NHS consultant neurologist Dr David Nicholl was one of just 100 NHS staff invited to the premiere of ‘Breathtaking’ at BAFTA in London on Tuesday night.
The three-part drama following NHS medics during the Covid-19 pandemic starts on Monday on ITV.
In the first episode, weeks before the UK’s first national lockdown, acute medicine consultant Dr Abbey Henderson and her team struggle with the first wave of Covid-19 patients.
They are running out of PPE, staff, and beds and Abbey is forced to make difficult healthcare decisions as her colleagues begin to be infected with the virus.
When lockdown is finally imposed, the pandemic stretches Abbey and the team to their limits as they confront Government policy in relation to care home discharges and inadequate PPE.
They try their best to save patients but are forced to endure the trauma of loss and tragedy caused by Covid-19.
As winter arrives, a new wave hits the hospital, this time with Covid-19 deniers surfacing too, which causes the team to reach their breaking point. Click below to watch the trailer.
Dr Nicholl said: “This truly is a very hard-hitting story that has not been told how woefully unprepared we were for the first wave of the pandemic. It will bring flashbacks for many, and yet it is vital that this story is told.
“There were so many scenes that brought back many painful memories for me.
“One of the cast is a spitting image of one of my nursing colleagues who got seriously ill with Covid in the first wave.
“The medical scenes were at a level of accuracy I have simply not seen in other dramas, for that the makers should be congratulated, and audiences warned. This is not for the faint-hearted, but essential viewing.”
Breathtaking starts at 9pm on Monday on ITV1 and will be available on the ITVX streaming service.
