Prasanna Puwanarajah, who stars as Martin Bashir on season 5 of “The Crown,” is working again with “Line of Duty” creator Jed Mercurio, this time on an adaptation of Rachel Clarke’s pandemic-themed bestseller “Breathtaking.”
The book is being developed as a three-part as-yet-untitled drama for U.K. broadcaster ITV, Puwanarajah, who was formerly a doctor with the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS), as was Mercurio, told Variety. Clarke is writing the drama with Puwanarajah and Mercurio.
Set during the time when the U.K. was being ravaged by COVID-19, Clarke’s book provides an insider’s look at the pandemic from a hospital doctor’s point of view.
“Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor who I used to work with in the NHS, when I was a first year junior doctor and she was a medical student – I taught her how to do IV drip lines. And she’s now an incredible statesperson for the NHS and advocate for NHS staff and patients,” Puwanarajah said.
“It’s looking at the the lives of healthcare professionals in the first few months of the pandemic,” Puwanarajah said. “I’m very keen to get what I think is a really important piece of public interest drama out into the world. Because, we’ve been living through tough times, and it is important to challenge the shifting landscape of truth that we are told and to push back against that with information and facts based on witnessed events. It’s something that’s really important to me.”
Mercurio and Puwanarajah previously collaborated on graphic novel “Sleeper,” where the worlds of science fiction, conspiracy thriller and Westerns collide. Puwanarajah also starred in Mercurio’s Sky medical drama “Critical” and is currently filming ITV crime drama “Payback,” which is executive produced by Mercurio.
Naman Ramachandran
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