REVIEW: If you’ve only ever seen Jodie Comer as Killing Eve’s villainous Villanelle, then prepare to be gobsmacked by her latest turn.
Speaking with her native scouse accent, the Liverpudlian delivers an outstanding performance as a care worker in the one-off drama Help (which debuts on Sky TV’s Rialto Channel at 8.30pm on Saturday, May 28 and will also be available to stream on Sky Go).
Already rewarded with a TV Bafta, it’s just a shame it’s not eligible for many other honours that it would fully deserve.
When we first meet her Sarah, she’s preparing for an interview at Bright Sky Carehome. Despite her rehearsed patter, owner-manager Steve (Ian Hart) is sceptical of her experience and skills. “School was a joke, work not much better,” he chides, reminding her that their over-riding emphasis is on “treating people with dignity”. That’s when she loses her temper, recounting her memories of dealing with her grandfather’s Alzheimer's and storming out, as Steve shouts that he was “just baiting you” and that she should “start Monday – you’ll do fine”.
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However, rather than assisting showering, changing sanitary pads or reorganising bed linen, Sarah’s first task is actually a far more stressful one. Tony (Stephen Graham), a 47-year-old, with young onset Alzheimer’s, has been missing since tea. While Steve knows precisely where he’s headed – his late mum’s house – he needs Sarah to help talk him into peacefully coming back to Bright Sky. It’s something she does with aplomb, earning both Tony and Steve’s trust.
Less support comes from her own feckless family (a rag-tag mob who make Bread’s Boswells look like pillars of the community) convinced that their ne-er-do-well daughter won’t last five minutes in such a responsible role. They’re quickly proven wrong.
Within a few months though, comes a challenge potentially far greater than ridding herself of the permanent smell of “talcum powder and piss”. It’s early March 2020 and a potentially deadly coronavirus has started circulating around the UK.
As he struggles to obtain masks and alcohol wipes, let alone personal protective equipment, Steve decides to do his bit for the national cause by allowing eight long-term hospital patients to be brought into the home.
What follows is a nightmare, a searing indictment of the British government’s early Covid response and one of the most compelling dramas you’ll see all year.
With a terrific ensemble at their disposal, one that also includes Cathy Tyson (who also took home a Bafta) and David Hayman, director Marc Munden (The Third Day, Utopia) and writer Jack Thorne (The Virtues, His Dark Materials) draw the viewer into the middle of the increasing maelstrom and make you care about the fate of all the characters we encounter.
While Comer is onscreen – often filling most of the frame – for much of the running time, it’s a 26-minute seemingly unbroken sequence that will really give you the feels. Left to hold the fort alone because Covid exposure has claimed her colleagues, we witness her increasing fear as one of her charges suffers respiratory distress, and she can’t find any medical professionals available to help.
As she rushes back and forth using a bin bag as PPE and striking either unattended phones or overextended emergency services, as she frantically seeks outside assistance, it’s a breathless masterclass in tension and emotion-building, while also almost guaranteed to be heartrending and rage-inducing for the audience.
Help debuts on Sky TV’s Rialto Channel at 8.30pm on Saturday, May 28. It will also be available to stream on Sky Go.