It’s an unflinching drama from the creator of Line of Duty, plunging viewers into the struggle of healthcare workers to save lives during the pandemic’s first wave.
So why are viewers in New Zealand the only ones to have seen Breathtaking, the series ITV hopes will repeat the stunning impact of its Post Office scandal drama?
Based on the memoirs of former NHS doctor Rachel Clarke, the three-part show is a “haunting” insider’s account of the pandemic from the front line.
Starring Downton Abbey actress Joanne Froggatt as a consultant in a big city hospital when the virus takes hold, health workers battle fatigue and tension with managers over incoherent safety advice as the death toll rises.
Real news footage, including Boris Johnson boasting that he has shaken hands with coronavirus patients, is interspersed with the drama.
Producers hope Breathtaking‘s powerful scenes will capture the public mood in the same manner as Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which directly led to the Government promising new laws to exonerate hundreds of postmasters wrongly prosecuted over the Horizon software’s failings.
However the series, adapted from Dr Clarke’s best-selling memoirs by Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio and actor Prasanna Puwanarajah, both qualified doctors, is currently only available to viewers watching New Zealand’s national broadcaster, TVNZ.
One told i: “Breathtaking is gruelling to watch, gruelling, confronting and heartrending. It is all the more real for using actual film clips of Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock et al.”
“But the question is: why have I been able to see it in New Zealand when the people most affected – you Brits – aren’t able to?”
The viewer asked: “Is it being withheld in the UK because the Hallett Covid inquiry is ongoing? Or is it because it is election year? Whatever, it deserves to be seen.”
Breathtaking is available in full on TVNZ’s streaming platform but viewers from outside New Zealand who click to view are told it is unavailable due to rights restrictions.
A spokesperson for ITV Studios, which is distributing Breathtaking to overseas broadcasters, said it was “an exception to the general rule that TVNZ ran the drama ahead of the commissioning broadcaster in this instance”.
ITV said there was no suggestion Breathtaking was being delayed due to political considerations.
A spokesperson said: “The series is coming soon to ITV1 and ITVX and hasn’t been held back in the UK. As always, it’s about finding the best transmission slot for every programme.”
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK campaign welcomed ITV’s commitment to screening Breathtaking.
Brenda Doherty, who lost her mother Ruth Burke in April 2020, told i she hopes the programme will “help shine a light on the ways healthcare workers and patients like my mum were let down during the pandemic”.
“Our stories, like those of the Horizon victims, are crucial to achieving justice.
“But families like mine should be able to watch TV dramas about our suffering in the knowledge that the Government is doing all it can to learn from its mistakes, not lying and deleting evidence as they have done in other scandals before.”
Ms Doherty asked why it had taken a TV show, in the case of the postmasters, to drive the Government to take action.
“It is a disgrace that it has taken an ITV drama to shame the Government into taking victims seriously, over a decade late,” she said.
Breathtaking is now expected to be shown in February, with all episodes available on the ITVX player. It must be shown outside of the general election period due to the political nature of its content.
Congratulating ITV on the “superb public broadcasting” of its Mr Bates vs The Post Office drama, Dr Clarke said she was “thrilled” that Breathtaking would be “coming very soon to ITV”.
Director Craig Viveiros said the drama would “allow the audience to be immersed in the struggles our real-life heroes faced in the wards and emergency departments across the country, day after day, during the pandemic. This story is a chance for their voices and sacrifices to be seen and heard.”
Dr Clarke, a former palliative care doctor, has said that there had been a lot of misinformation and “rewriting of history” about what happened in hospitals during the pandemic.
Breathtaking completed filming in Belfast in May last year. It was produced by HTM Television, the company behind Stephen, ITV’s factual drama about the murder of Stephen Lawrence. HTM is co-owned by Mr Mercurio, who worked as a hospital doctor for three years.
ITV Studios has a “first look” deal with TVNZ giving it exclusive access to the UK network’s shows.
“At the moment TVNZ is the first and only broadcaster to air it, but we expect partners in Denmark and Norway to be the next to follow the UK broadcast,” an ITV Studios spokesperson said.
Breathtaking is attracting keen anticipation among UK viewers. Carol Vorderman, the TV personality-turned-political-activist, called it a “game changer” which will have an impact on the Hallett inquiry, which resumes hearings this month.
ITV Studios is also receiving extensive interest from international broadcasters in airing Mr Bates vs The Post Office after its depiction of the Horizon scandal became a national talking point.
The ITV drama’s first episode has now been seen by more than nine million viewers, with the whole series racking up 14 million views so far.
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