Breathtaking: Dr Rachel Clarke Discusses Her New TV Series

About the event

We are delighted to welcome author and palliative care doctor Dr Rachel Clarke back to Good Grief, in conversation with Dr Lucy Selman. Rachel and Lucy will be talking about Breathtaking, Rachel’s 2021 book, which launched this week as a three-part series on ITV.

Breathtaking is an unflinching insider’s account of medicine in the time of coronavirus. Amid the tensions, fatigue and rising death toll of the early days of the coronavirus, Rachel witnessed the courage of patients and NHS staff alike in conditions of unprecedented adversity. For all the bleakness and fear, she found that moments that could stop you in your tracks abounded. People who rose to their best, upon facing the worst, as a microbe laid waste to the population.

The new TV series is set in a city hospital, and combines news footage from the early months of 2020 following frontline medical staff trying to save the lives of coronavirus patients as the virus begins to overwhelm the NHS.

In this session, featuring clips from the series, Rachel and Lucy will discuss the creation of the TV adaptation, and its reception and impact, and invite questions from the audience.