Breathtaking true story: who is Doctor Rachel Clarke, who plays her in ITV Covid drama series?

Doctor Rachel Clarke worked on the front line in the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic which began in the UK in early 2020 and her story is the centre of ITV drama Breathtaking.

As herself and thousands of other doctors, nurses and frontline workers continued to go into work through the crisis, Clarke was with patients as they died from Covid, and also saw colleagues get sick from the virus. 

Breathtaking premieres on ITV1 tonight and the series has been predicted to do for NHS workers what Mr Bates vs. The Post Office did for the wrongly accused subpostmasters, as the story of those on the frontline is uncovered.

Who is Doctor Rachel Clarke?

Doctor Rachel Clarke, 52, is a palliative care doctor who has worked in the medical profession since 2009 and has been a prominent campaigner in her field, particularly when she opposed then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s proposed new contract for junior doctors.

Clarke worked on the front line during the Covid-10 pandemic and wrote a book about her experiences. The memoir, Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic, published in January 2021, was a first hand account of life in the NHS during the first months of the pandemic. The memoir also included interviews with her colleagues, patients and their families. 

Clarke has previously written two other non-fiction books about her profession - Your Life in My Hands: A Junior Doctor's Story, and Dear Life, a Doctor's Story of Love and Loss.

Clarke spoke about the trauma she experienced during the pandemic ahead of the ITV adaptation of her book being released. Speaking on LBC, she said: “I had colleagues coming up to me asking me to witness signing their wills because they were so frightened of dying.

“Sure enough, we soon had members of staff in intensive care, dying, and all of that, to some extent has been forgotten. We like to move on from traumatic experiences.”

Who plays Doctor Rachel Clarke in Breathtaking?

Joanne Froggatt plays Doctor Abbey Henderson in the series, however, the real Rachel Clarke said that the character is not solely based on herself.

Henderson is a composite of Dr. Clarke and many other doctors and hospital staff who worked during the pandemic and who inspired the memoir that Clarke wrote and which the series is based on.

Joanne Froggatt is best known for playing Anna Bates in the Downton Abbey TV series and two spin-off films, and may also reprise her role in the new series that is reportedly in production.

Her other popular roles include playing Sarah Vincent in BBC crime drama Sherwood, and Abigail Crawford in Australian thriller series North Shore. She is also set to have a supporting role in upcoming Spanish language series Angela.