Harrowing scenes in ITV show Breathtaking are hailed by viewers including health workers and MPs as drama lays bare the huge impact of the Covid pandemic on the NHS

• Traumatised medics shared memories and photos from frontline hospital wards
• Emotive scenes in the ITV drama included a patient left dying in an ambulance 

Harrowing scenes in ITV’s show Breathtaking have been hailed by viewers as the drama laid bare the huge impact of the Covid pandemic on the NHS.

Traumatised doctors, nurses and patients shared how last night’s primetime programme – based on a book by Dr Rachel Oxford – brought back stark memories of the first coronavirus wave in March 2020.

Doctors and nurses responded by posting pictures of the masks and PPE they had to don when dealing with over-crowded coronavirus wards and tackling tragedy – with one who lost her father saying: ‘I lived that nightmare.’

There was also criticism for then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Matt Hancock – as real-life footage and recreations were blended in the show co-written by award-winning Jed Mercurio.

Daily Mail TV critic Christopher Stevens described the programme as ‘enough to bring on symptoms of dizziness and nausea’ – and many viewers agreed, while sharing online their own emotional recollections of the pandemic’s frontline.

Dr Abbey Henderson, an acute medicine consultant played by Joanne Froggatt, shows painful marks from her PPE in new ITV drama series Breathtaking

ITV’s new drama Breathtaking delves into life in hospitals during the pandemic

This series uses news footage and archive audio from Covid press conferences to chart the progress of the disease from earliest cases to full lockdown.

Key scenes broadcast last night highlighted a shortage of respirator masks, with those available designed mainly for men with big noses and broad jaws.

Staff asking for alternatives were seen being told: ‘If you really want one, you can get one on Amazon – they’re about 300 quid.’

The show stars former Coronation Street and Downton Abbey actress Joanne Froggatt, who plays Dr Abbey Henderson – a consultant frustrated by officials apparently allowing people to die rather than defy Public Health England protocols.

And the startling scenes appear to have chimed with many frontline medics, sharing their responses and memories from the height of the health crisis.

Mercurio, whose previous TV hits include Cardiac Arrest and Line Of Duty, posted ahead of last night’s broadcast: ‘As a former junior hospital doctor, I couldn’t be prouder of cowriting this 3-part drama paying tribute to the untold sacrifices of #NHS staff.’

There was a wave of response from medics suggesting their own pandemic ordeals were being reflected on screen.

Kathryn de Prudhoe, posting as a trauma informed therapist, shared a tribute to her coronavirus victim father Tony Clay, 60, from Leeds – described as ‘totally and utterly devoted to his family and grandchildren’.

READ MORE: Joanne Froggatt has taken on some dark roles. But her latest – as a doctor during the pandemic – had her in tears from the very beginning 

She wrote on X, formerly Twitter: ‘I lived that nightmare as the daughter of a man who caught and died from Covid in those early days.’

Temporary outreach nurse Kirstie shared a photo of herself with the strains left by PPE apparent on her face, as she deliberated over whether to watch the programme.

She posted: ‘Not tonight, maybe not tomorrow, not sure I will…but seeing a lot of people watching #BREATHTAKING.

‘This photo breaks my heart, the sadness and exhaustion in my eyes. I still recall the pain on my face. I think often of the patients I cared for, the scenarios I experienced.

‘The emotions in those eyes still haunt me as I embark on another round of therapy. I’ve never been the same since. Not quite.’

Among those tuning in was doctor Saleyha Ahsan, who posted pictures from the pandemic of her time in PPE as well as thoughts on her father’s suffering and revelations of pandemic rule-breaking in Downing Street.

She wrote: ‘All the #BREATHTAKING stuff is making me remember what I had buried – the memory of what it was like, the fear, the brutality of it all, the gov and civil service lying and partying, my patients, my dad.’

And gastroenterologist Dr Ajay M Verman shared photos of himself with and without PPE, adding: ‘Throwback to March and April in the first lockdown due to Covid-19 surges.

‘A really challenging and frightening time. My wife and I completed our wills in April 2020. My #Breathtaking moments.’

Dental surgeon Dr Vinay Raniga wrote: ‘In February 2020, I contracted COVID-19 whilst working at A&E at Northwick Park.

‘In March 2020, I was redeployed to the ICU frontline to save lives. I lived out of a Holiday Inn for 4 months, working 12-hour shifts. It was traumatic but an honour to serve.’

Another poster sharing pictures of her PPE-clad mother who ‘worked throughout Covid-19 on her intensive care unit’, adding: ‘I don’t think I really understood the depth of the trauma happening until watching #BREATHTAKING.

‘My mum and her fellow NHS workers are quite simply heroes.’

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams wrote: ‘#BREATHTAKING really powerful. Very well done bringing this to our screens – we need to learn from this.’

Dr Abbey Henderson, played by Downton Abbey star Joanna Froggatt, fights back tears as she declares the patient dead before walking back to her Covid ward

Last night’s opener, called Containment, covers the three critical weeks leading up to the original March 2020 lockdown

During the episode Dr Abbey sees one man, 80 years old with a heart condition, on a gurney in a store cupboard

READ MORE: Tear-jerking scene in ITVs new three-part Covid drama Breathtaking shows patient being left to die in the back of an ambulance because pandemic-era rules stopped paramedics from doing CPR 

Froggatt said she was left shaken and tearful after reading the Breathtaking script.

She recalled: ‘Soon after I began reading the first episode I started to cry.

‘That’s never happened to me before in 27 years reading scripts. Nothing I’ve been asked to be a part of has affected me, or shocked me, in the way this story did.’

The series was filmed over three floors of a disused university building in Belfast last year, with the rooms and corridors furnished to look like a busy hospital.

Before filming began Joanne and the rest of the cast attended a medical bootcamp aimed at teaching them everything from the correct way to put on their PPE to how to resuscitate patients.

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