Frontline of FEAR

Joanne Froggatt plays an NHS doctor battling the pandemic

-  SEAN MARLAND, IAN MACEWAN

NEW DRAMA Breathtaking Monday-Wednesday, 9pm, ITV1 (box set, ITVX)

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the British public was repeatedly assured that the NHS had sufficient personal protective equipment for hospital employees working at the sharp end of the pandemic.

However, as new ITV1 hospital drama Breathtaking reveals, the reality of life on the frontline was very different.

Based on a memoir by Dr Rachel Clarke, the three-parter stars Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt as Abbey Henderson, an NHS consultant witnessing chaotic and heartbreaking scenes as the hospital where she is based fills up with COVID-19 cases.

‘Abbey is an NHS consultant in acute general medicine,’ explains Froggatt, 43, who previously worked with Breathtaking director Craig Viveiros on ITV thriller