A CRYING SHAME (HELP)

 

Nineteen months on from the first Coronavirus lockdown, it's amazing how we have seemed to have buried just how bad it was.

While some people argue over vaccines, the continued wearing of facemasks or even the need for social distancing, many of us need to appreciate we are fortunate to have come through the pandemic so far.

The fight against Covid is far from over but the vaccination program has offered hope of a return to something approaching the society we once had. 

However vital lessons also need to be learned about why governments in the UK and most nations were terribly ill prepared to cope with Covid-19.

It's all too easy to point fingers over what went wrong.

But what really matters is identifying the mistakes that were made, understanding why and ensuring that they never happen again.

The level of unpreparedness in the UK for any pandemic was brought uncomfortably home in Jack Thorne's brilliantly written, hard hitting Channel 4 Liverpudlian drama 'Help'.

Thorne's drama sought to convey just how bad the trauma was for care homeworkers trying to keep vulnerable patients alive.

Taking a break from her burgeoning career as a star of the small and big screen, Jodie Comer deployed her real Liverpudlian accent as Sarah, a care assistant with all the right attributes for her demanding job.

Keen to make a difference for the most vulnerable people in society, Sarah had a good sense of humour and a strong sense of duty.

Arriving at the Bright Sky Nursing Home, we saw her preparing in her car for a job interview and then waiting inside to be called while Stephen Graham's early onset Alzheimer's patient Tony offered to make her a cup of tea.

The interview with Ian Hart's care home owner Steve was heavy going, with Sarah losing it over his initially aggressive tone and his gruff observation that an ability to joke is hardly a qualification to work in a care home.

She stormed out of the interview, with Steve explaining he was deliberately trying to wind her up and she could begin the job the following Monday.

Fuming at her treatment in her car, Sarah was touched when Tony appeared with a cup of tea.

Steve was much warmer as Sarah started the job and got to know the residents who included Steve Karti's Kenny, Sue Johnston's Gloria, Cathy Tyson's ex schoolteacher Polly and David Hayman's Hercules.

She breezily went about her duties despite dealing with Herc's aggressive behaviour during breakfast time or having to change Gloria's pads. 

A Christmas party saw Polly recite a poem and Tony, who Sarah developed a real affinity for, told a rather rude limerick.

Christmas, Steve quipped, was great because the staff got paid double time and the residents seemed to crap themselves less.

Then Covid hit - with Sarah hearing about the first death on a radio news bulletin like most of the nation.

Soon the mood in Bright Sky suddenly darkened.

Believing he was doing his bit, Steve accepted eight patients from the NHS because they needed the hospital beds that they were occupying to allocate to Covid patients.

An ambulance man was stunned when Sarah, Steve and Arthur Hughes' Tim greeted the first patient with no facemask or PPE.

Steve was struck down by Covid as the scale of the Coronavirus pandemic became clear and he struggled to source masks and PPE.

One resident died - her room sealed off and her name removed from the door.

As residents were locked in their rooms with relatives only able to come to see them on the other side of a window, staff shortages began to bite with Sarah being left to fend on her own overnight during an horrific 20 hour shift.

Against all the rules, she had to rely on Tony to help another resident struck down with Covid to breathe.

But how much more could she take?

Jack Thorne's angry screenplay drove home to audiences why health and social care workers deserve a lot more than the lip service that has been paid to them throughout the Covid crisis.

With care workers in the UK paid on average just £8.50 an hour, it is actually shameful that we have slipped back into the mentality of thinking it is alright for a footballer in one Premier League club to receive $531,000 a week while those caring for the most vulnerable earn about £17,600 a year.

Where's the justice in that?

It's also hard not to feel sympathy for Sarah during a fantastically crafted rant at the end of Thorne's drama when she argues society has placed a greater value on the lives of some people over care home residents.

'Help' was polemical drama at its best and the acting and direction of 'Help' was top notch.

Jodie Comer was mind blowingly good as the kind hearted but increasingly exhausted and disillusioned Sarah - a young woman whose dream job suddenly turned into a nightmare.

Comer's good friend offscreen, Stephen Graham was also at his 'God help him' best - easily engaging the audience's sympathy as a charming 47 year old who has been dealt a cruel hand by developing early onset Alzheimer's.

Hart was as intelligent onscreen as ever, bringing out the light and shade as a care home owner who, through no fault of his own, was out of his depth and ill equipped when the pandemic struck.

Johnston, Hayman, Karti and Tyson subtly tugged our heart strings in their depiction of residents in various stages of dementia.

Angela Griffin was excellent as Tori, a fellow care worker who didn't mince her words with Steve and was extremely empathetic towards Sarah after her nightmare shift.

Andrew Schofield and Lesley Sharpe were reliably strong in the handful of scenes they had as Sarah's parents, Bob and Gaynor, while Arthur Hughes was sturdy in his supporting role of another care worker Tim.

Marc Munden, the director behind Channel 4's tough showbiz sex scandal drama 'National Treasure' and Sky Atlantic and Sky Arts' innovative horror miniseries 'The Third Day' cleverly built the impending sense of doom as we waited for the pandemic to hit English shores.

Munden's genius move was to approach Thorne's drama as if he were making a social realist horror film.

The use of an NHS helpline during the drama's most distressing sequence was disturbing, yet poignant and typical of a director with a real cinematic ear and eye.

Inevitably, some critics will compare the heightened drama of 'Help's' finale to Ken Loach's groundbreaking BBC social conscience drama 'Cathy Come Home'.

And like the best of Loach's work, Thorne and Munden's work handled its little glimpses of humanity brilliantly - Tony trying to teach Sarah how to play a game of cards with a particularly crude name, Steve's wink of appreciation in the driving mirror when she talked Tony into the car after he escaped Bright Sky.

However the one-off drama's greatest contribution was the way it provided an insight into the extraordinary efforts that care workers have gone to look after our relatives before and during the pandemic.

Clapping NHS staff and cheering care home workers at the height of the first lockdown was all well and good.

But are we really prepared to stand up for better pay and conditions for those people we ask to look after our most vulnerable?

Have we really learned the lessons of a pandemic that was allowed to rip through our care homes with catastrophic consequences?

'Help' is a tough, tough watch. 

It's also an important watch.

It is British television drama at the very top of its game - gripping, thought provoking and politically explosive.

It also explains why Boris Johnson's Government is so eager to privatise Channel 4.

('Help' was broadcast on Channel 4 on September 16, 2021)

Lokasi:

Berbagi :