Breathtaking is a British medical drama television series, written by Rachel Clarke, Jed Mercurio, and Prasanna Puwanarajah, based on Clarke's 2021 memoir of the same name on the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The series is set in a city hospital, and combines news footage from the early months of 2020 with portrayal of acute medical consultant Dr Abbey Henderson (Froggatt) and fellow frontline medical staff trying to save the lives of coronavirus patients, as the virus begins to overwhelm the NHS.
Mecurio and Puwanarajah helped adapt the book for the screen; all three are qualified doctors.
[3] Craig Viveiros is director with HTM Television producing the three-part series along with Northern Ireland Screen.
[5][6] Viveiros has reportedly used long, real-time sequences as part of the filming process to allow the audience to become “immersed”.