The Killing Eve star plays an overworked carer in the feature-length pandemic drama.
Tonight sees the debut of Jack Thorne’s one-off COVID drama Help on BBC One, and RadioTimes.com can offer viewers a first-look preview featuring Killing Eve star Jodie Comer.
The clip introduces Comer as struggling carer Sarah, who is just finishing a 20-hour shift in the midst of the pandemic.
“Kenny’s not well,” she says to her fellow carer Tori (Angela Griffin), who responds, “I can see that, why did you put him on his front?”
Sarah replies that she was asked to make him feel comfortable and her colleague then says, “So you thought you’d go rogue? I admire the balls.”
With Sarah looking increasingly upset, Tori then consoles her. “You’re a good girl,” she says. “Whatever happened here last night, you did well.”
The two-hour drama follows Sarah as she forms a close bond with a patient, Tony (Stephen Graham), specifically detailing the effect that the coronavirus pandemic has had on them.
As the pandemic sets in, she goes to “extraordinary lengths to protect those in her care” but despite her heroic efforts she “is pushed into a dark corner and desperately looks for a way out”.
Speaking about the drama, Comer described it as “an exploration of how people on the frontline had to adjust and adapt to the severity of the situation around them at the outbreak of the pandemic and what they were left to deal with”.
She added, “Within that, there are these gorgeous relationships between the residents and care workers, one of the residents being Stephen’s character, Tony. It feels like a very human story, and it’s something that I think a lot of people can relate to right now.”
Meanwhile, asked what drew her to the project, Griffin said, “I found the story really important and the script was utterly compelling when I read it. I think considering everything that was going on, that is going on, the aftertaste of the crisis in the care homes, it just felt like something really important to be a part of, important to be told.”