ine Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio has co-written a drama concerning the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, starring Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt as an NHS hospital advisor.

Filming of Breathtaking was accomplished in Northern Ireland earlier this yr, ITV mentioned.

The three-part collection is predicated on doctor-writer Rachel Clarke’s private memoir of engaged on the Covid-19 entrance line.

It has been tailored for tv by Clarke and former junior hospital docs Mercurio and Prasanna Puwanarajah and is produced by Mercurio’s unbiased manufacturing firm, HTM Television, which has been accountable for producing Trigger Point, DI Ray, Bloodlands and Stephen.

Froggatt will play acute drugs advisor and mother-of-two Dr Abbey Henderson within the drama set in a fictional big-city hospital, which narrates how frontline medical workers endured concern and frustration as they desperately tried to save lots of the lives of coronavirus sufferers.

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She mentioned: “I feel truly honoured to be playing Dr Abbey Henderson in Breathtaking, based on Dr Rachel Clarke’s beautifully written, poignant and shocking book of the same name.

“When I first read the incredible scripts they moved me to tears on many occasions. I felt so passionately that I had to be a part of telling this story, the real story, of what was really happening behind the closed doors of the hospitals during the pandemic.”

She added: “Our NHS staff are nothing less than absolute heroes in my eyes, and I hope telling this story goes a little way towards us understanding their truth, their lived experience and honouring their unbelievable commitment and sacrifice on behalf of us all.”

Set towards a backdrop of news footage from the early months of 2020, the drama will comply with Abbey in her every day work whereas weaving collectively the tales of her fellow docs, nurses, sufferers and the paramedics.

Mercurio mentioned: “Everyone at HTM Television has felt privileged to dramatise Rachel Clarke’s hauntingly illuminating memoir of health workers struggling to cope with the extraordinary challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’m honoured to have collaborated with Rachel and Prasanna on this important drama, and thrilled to be working with a cast led by Joanne Froggatt and crew led by director Craig Viveiros.”

Clarke added: “There is so much misinformation and rewriting of history around what really happened inside our hospitals during the pandemic.

“The truth is, NHS staff gave everything they had in impossible conditions that sometimes cost them their lives.

“It is an honour to try and depict the courage and decency of my NHS colleagues on screen, and I’m so grateful to ITV and HTM Television for giving me the chance to show the public the truth.”