''Help'' is a 2021 British
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
television film
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
about the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confir ...
, written by
Jack Thorne
Jack Thorne FRSL (born 6 December 1978) is a British playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and producer.
He is best known for writing the stage play ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'', the films ''Wonder'' and '' Enola Holmes'', an ...
and directed by
Marc Munden
Marc Munden is an English film director best known for his work on ''Utopia'', '' National Treasure'' and '' The Mark of Cain'' among others.
Early life
Munden was born in London, England. His father, Maxwell Munden, was a filmmaker who made film ...
. It follows Sarah (
Jodie Comer
Jodie Marie Comer ( ; born 11 March 1993) is an English actress who rose to global prominence for her role as Oksana Astankova / Villanelle in the BBC America spy thriller '' Killing Eve'' (2018–2022).
She has received various accolades in ...
), a young health care assistant who starts working at a care home in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, where she cares for Tony (
Stephen Graham
Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film ''This Is England'' (2006) and its television sequels ''This Is England '86'' (2010), '' This Is England '88'' ( ...
), a middle-aged man who has
early-onset Alzheimer's disease
Early-onset Alzheimer's disease, also called younger-onset Alzheimer's, is Alzheimer's disease diagnosed before the age of 65. It is an uncommon form of Alzheimer's, accounting for only 5–10% of all Alzheimer's cases. About 60% have a positive ...
; when the pandemic hits the UK, both their worlds are completely transformed.
It premiered on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
on 16 September 2021.
Plot
In 2019, Sarah begins working as a care assistant at Bright Sky Homes, a care home in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
. She is good at connecting with the residents, in particular a middle-aged man called Tony, who has
early-onset Alzheimer's disease
Early-onset Alzheimer's disease, also called younger-onset Alzheimer's, is Alzheimer's disease diagnosed before the age of 65. It is an uncommon form of Alzheimer's, accounting for only 5–10% of all Alzheimer's cases. About 60% have a positive ...
. Tony frequently walks out of the building and wanders the streets to try and go to his mother's house, forgetting that she has died and their home now belongs to another family.
The work load is tough, but everyone's world is turned upside down when the
COVID-19 pandemic hits the UK in March 2020. Like most other care homes across the country, Bright Sky suffers a COVID-19 outbreak amongst residents. This is made all the worse by a severe lack of
personal protective equipment
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, elec ...
(PPE) with supplies in
NHS
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
hospitals being prioritised above homes.
One night, when Sarah is left as the only carer on duty, Bright Sky resident Kenny suffers a serious coughing fit. Sarah calls the COVID-19 hotline, as well as
NHS 111
111 is a free-to-call single non-emergency number medical helpline operating in England, Scotland and parts of Wales. The 111 phone service has replaced the various non-geographic 0845 rate numbers and is part of each country's National Health S ...
, but no ambulances are available in the area. Angry and frightened, Sarah wakes up Tony, who is also Kenny's best friend. He manages to turn Kenny over, but he is still in a bad way.
Later, Sarah finds out that Tony has been given new medicine by Steve, the head of the home. She confronts Steve, who tells her that Tony's GP had insisted upon the change. Enraged, Sarah takes Tony out of Bright Sky and brings him to a caravan owned by her family, where they spend twelve days. Sarah is found by her dad Bob, who commends her actions by asking her if she needs any supplies. Whilst playing
Shithead
Shithead is a derogatory term for a person who is Ignorance, ignorant, narrow minded, cruel or unintelligent. It is generally considered to be a vulgar and profanity, profane term.
It may also refer to:
* Shithead (card game)
* "Shithead", a s ...
, Tony and Sarah are found by the police, who received a tip-off from some dog walkers who spotted them. Tony is returned to Bright Sky and Sarah is arrested.
Sarah, in the back of a police car, breaks the
fourth wall
The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...
and warns the audience against turning a blind eye to the needs of others in society, from those in social care to those using
food bank
A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direc ...
s. The film ends with statistics about deaths in UK care homes at the beginning of the pandemic and the insufficient amount of PPE the government provided.
Cast
*
Jodie Comer
Jodie Marie Comer ( ; born 11 March 1993) is an English actress who rose to global prominence for her role as Oksana Astankova / Villanelle in the BBC America spy thriller '' Killing Eve'' (2018–2022).
She has received various accolades in ...
as Sarah
*
Stephen Graham
Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film ''This Is England'' (2006) and its television sequels ''This Is England '86'' (2010), '' This Is England '88'' ( ...
as Tony
*
Ian Hart
Ian Davies (born 8 October 1964), better known by his stage name Ian Hart, is an English actor. His most notable roles are Rabbit in the Channel Four drama miniseries ''One Summer'' (1983), Joe O'Reilly in the biopic ''Michael Collins'' (1996) ...
as Steve
*
Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp is an English stage, film and television actress whose roles on British television include ''Clocking Off'' (2000–2001), '' Bob & Rose'' (2001) and ''Afterlife'' (2005–2006). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actres ...
as Gaynor
*
Andrew Schofield as Bob
*
Cathy Tyson
Catherine Tyson (born 12 June 1965) is an English actress. She won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film ''Mona Lisa'' (1986), which also earned her Best Supporting Actress no ...
as Polly
*
Angela Griffin
Angela Mellissa Griffin (born 19 July 1976) is a British actress and television presenter who has been active on British television since the early 1990s. She is best known for portraying the roles of Fiona Middleton in the ITV soap opera '' ...
as Tori
*
Arthur Hughes as Tim
*
Sue Johnston
Susan Johnston OBE (née Wright; born 7 December 1943) is an English actress. She is known for portraying Sheila Grant in the Channel 4 soap opera ''Brookside'' (1982–1990), Barbara Royle in the BBC comedy ''The Royle Family'' (1998–2000, ...
as Gloria
* Steve Garti as Kenny
* Ellis Howard as Robbie
*
Alicya Eyo as June
*
David Hayman
David Hayman (born 9 February 1948) is a Scottish film, television and stage actor and director, known for his role as DCS Mike Walker in ITV drama ''Trial & Retribution'', as Jonas Franks in BBC period drama '' The Paradise'' and as Brace i ...
as Hercules
Production
Background
On 20 November 2020,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
announced that
Jodie Comer
Jodie Marie Comer ( ; born 11 March 1993) is an English actress who rose to global prominence for her role as Oksana Astankova / Villanelle in the BBC America spy thriller '' Killing Eve'' (2018–2022).
She has received various accolades in ...
and
Stephen Graham
Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film ''This Is England'' (2006) and its television sequels ''This Is England '86'' (2010), '' This Is England '88'' ( ...
would star in a television drama film produced by The Forge about the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
and its impact in the UK, with
Jack Thorne
Jack Thorne FRSL (born 6 December 1978) is a British playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and producer.
He is best known for writing the stage play ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'', the films ''Wonder'' and '' Enola Holmes'', an ...
writing the script and
Marc Munden
Marc Munden is an English film director best known for his work on ''Utopia'', '' National Treasure'' and '' The Mark of Cain'' among others.
Early life
Munden was born in London, England. His father, Maxwell Munden, was a filmmaker who made film ...
signing on as director. Speaking about the project, Thorne said: "About two years ago Stephen Graham came to me with an idea to write something for him and Jodie Comer. I tried to think of something and got nothing. Then this crisis happened, and we saw care homes getting squashed and battered by the government. It's been both a long process and a short one, trying to find a way to tell this story, the amazing thing has been sharing in working out the story with Stephen, Jodie, the amazing Marc Munden, Beth Willis and everyone at the Forge and Channel 4."
Thorne's original intention was to write a story about "different aspects of care homes and a different aspect of care home politics", but he was told to change it by The Forge founder
George Faber. "I was a bit scared of writing about Covid," Thorne told
''Empire'' magazine's ''Pilot TV''. "I didn't really want to write a Covid drama. But then the more stuff I read, the more important it seemed to be."
Filming
''Help'' was mostly shot in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, while some scenes were also filmed on
Thurstaston
Thurstaston is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. It is part of the West Kirby and Thurstaston Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West. The village lies on the A540 roa ...
Beach on the
Wirral Peninsula
Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to t ...
, and in a former care home in
Maghull
Maghull ( ) is a town and civil parish in Sefton, Merseyside (historically a part of Lancashire). The town is north of Liverpool and west of Kirkby. The area also contains Ashworth Hospital.
Maghull had a population of 20,444 at the 2011 Cens ...
.
The third part of the film, where Sarah is alone on the night shift and desperately tries to get in touch with the
emergency services
Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety and health by addressing and resolving different emergencies. Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies, while others deal wit ...
, was done in a
single take that lasted over 26 minutes. During a press Q&A, Comer admitted that this sequence was "probably the most difficult" scene to shoot throughout filming. "Marc
undenreally pushed me on that," she said. "I remember there was a moment, we'd done this whole take and I was so in my own head. And I was like, 'I think we've got it, we've got it, we've got it,' and Marc was like, 'No, no, no – we're gonna do one more,' and I was like, 'Oh okay'. I was so in my own head at this point and we did it again and the moment we got in that second take, we never ever would have got in the first. And I think Marc really was phenomenal at that, knowing just when to push you that little bit more. So I think that was probably the most difficult for all of us really because we all really had to huddle together and work as a team."
Reception
''Help'' was acclaimed by critics. Carol Midgley of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' gave the film five out of five stars and called it "a shaming nightmare
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
all ministers should see". Lauren Morris of the ''
Radio Times
''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
'' gave it four out of five stars, praising the film for "hit
ing
Ing, ING or ing may refer to:
Art and media
* '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film
* i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group
* The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes''
* "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...
home the traumatic experience many caregivers would have gone through whilst trying to look after vulnerable care home residents throughout the pandemic" and praised the performances of Graham and Comer.
''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' gave the film four stars, similarly praising the cast and storytelling, with reviewer Ed Cummings remarking, "''Help''
sat its best when it trusts its cast with the little unremembered acts of kindness and love that endured despite it all. With this subject matter, Graham and Comer are all the assistance you need." In a four-star review, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' dubbing it "evocative and harrowing", but had issues with the resolution. ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
''s Anita Singh gave ''Help'' four out of five stars and was particularly praising of Sarah's "hellish night shift", which Singh called "a virtuoso piece of directing from Marc Munden".
Awards
On 8 May 2022, for her portrayal of Sarah in ''Help'', Jodie Comer received a
British Academy Television Award
The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the BAFTA. They have been awarded annually since 1955.
Background
The first-ever Awards, given in 1955, consisted of six categories. Until ...
in the
Lead Actress
A leading actor, leading actress, or simply lead (), plays the role of the protagonist of a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person who typic ...
category, her second such award. In her speech, she thanked caregivers of the Dementia Society. Actor Stephen Graham, who played the role of Tony, was nominated for
Lead Actor
A leading actor, leading actress, or simply lead (), plays the role of the protagonist of a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person who typica ...
, and ''Help'' was nominated for
Best Single Drama.
References
External links
*
{{InternationalEmmyAward TV Movie or Miniseries
2021 films
2021 drama films
2021 in British television
2021 television films
2020s English-language films
Channel 4 television films
Films about the COVID-19 pandemic
Films directed by Marc Munden
Films set in 2019
Films set in 2020
Films set in Liverpool
Films shot in Cheshire
Films shot in Liverpool
Films with screenplays by Jack Thorne
Media depictions of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
2020s British films
British drama television films