Help!!!

This is tough — unbearable, I imagine, if one of your loved ones was in a care home during lockdown — because it feels like a horribly realistic depiction of the terrible time many such places had during the pandemic. 
It’s a powerful piece of writing from Jack Thorne and stars Jodie Comer as a young care assistant and Stephen Graham as a 47-year-old with early-onset Alzheimer’s (both are terrific) while Sue Johnston, Cathy Tyson and David Hayman are among those putting all dignity aside to give heartbreaking performances as the distraught residents. We’re graphically reminded of the initial lack of PPE, how the emergency services were overwhelmed, the pain of people unable to console relatives, the many deaths, the exhaustion of the despairing staff trying to cope with an intolerable situation: there’s so much to make you angry. But we shouldn’t be allowed to forget how dreadful it was and this deserves to be seen. It really does.