Breathtaking: the Covid drama that may make you scream

ITV's new Covid drama "Breathtaking" is "breathtakingly good".

That was Carol Midgley's assessment in The Times. She said "it's the best I have seen" from the lead actor, Joanne Froggatt, because "her performance as the consultant Abbey Henderson was more powerful for being restrained".

This is a "tour de force, exposing political complacency and reminding us how, despite all the clapping, NHS staff, many of whom died in the line of duty, are still taken for granted".

'Unparalleled attention to detail'

"Rarely does television feel so visceral," said Rachael Sigee on the i news site. "The attention to detail is unparalleled," she added, "from the scuffs on the walls to the red imprints of mask outlines on faces", and "that authenticity carries into the performances".

Sigee added a "big caveat", though. "It might be essential viewing but it is equally essential to do so with care. It may make you want to scream, but it's more likely you will watch in stunned silence."

As a polemic it is "powerful", said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. But it does at points become "so caught up in the fierceness of its message that it forgets the basics of hooking an audience".

Lucy Mangan, in The Guardian, had a similar take. "By the end, despite great performances from the whole cast, Breathtaking feels more like a cathartic rush for the writers, rather than something that deepens our understanding of what doctors and patients – and to some extent what we all – went through."

'Sad and authentic'

Ultimately, though, it is a "deeply sad and often triggering drama", said Sean O'Grady in The Independent. It is also a "highly authentic" one, based as it is on the book by Dr Rachel Clarke, who worked in hospitals during the pandemic.

"Without lapsing into heavy-handed propagandising, the drama has the voice of Boris Johnson in 'Mayor in Jaws' mode floating above the traumatic scenes, with the juxtaposition between lazy spin about 'sending the coronavirus packing', and the "frantic reality of people basically drowning, adding to the tragedy."