Unfortunately, no chancellor became Rishi Sunak’s prime minister in the penultimate episode of This England. But as life in Wuhan begins to return to normal, the fifth program depicts a week that many will never forget.
M’s health is always low.
The last place you want to see a prime minister during a national crisis is a hospital bed, but as Boris Johnson’s oxygen levels drop, he’s taken to St Thomas.
However, his dreams go on, and when he deteriorates and is rushed to intensive care – with the very real fear of having to be put on a ventilator – he is haunted by black and white scenes of Carrie, his children and former partners.
His daughter Lara quotes Euripides’ Iphigenia: “Do not destroy me before the time, for it is pleasant to look at the light.”
More like his father Stanley than ever, Kenneth Branagh’s Boris is under pressure. Slowly his health – and his oxygen levels – return, telling Kerry he’s been “to the banks of the Styx and back”, his love of Greek mythology undiminished despite his illness.
Medical teams are stretched…
Nursing homes and hospitals are struggling to cope with the number of Covid cases and deaths. The hospital, already full for two weeks, hopes to refer intubated patients to Nightingale Hospital, but this requires paperwork and an individual assessment.
Another blow came: Nightingale can take patients who have only respiratory problems, but most people who are intubated have complex needs.
By April 12, the government announced 10,612 deaths in hospitals (nursing homes were not counted) – the Office for National Statistics estimates that 20,000 people have died from Covid to that date.
Meanwhile, nursing homes are struggling with shortages in supplies of personal protective equipment and adequate testing. “We are not doctors, but you are the doctor,” says one of the managers of the boarding house, who is struggling with the events. “If the government were my employees, I would fire them for gross negligence,” she says later.
… But it’s not good at home either.
Get your napkins ready in time to watch the story of a grown-up daughter caring for her mother — who needs palliative care — and her father, who is losing his life to Covid.
If his health condition worsens, he is allowed to be cared for at home under the condition of a “Do Not Resuscitate” subscription. When it becomes clear that Frank has left for a short time, his daughter understandably finds it difficult to be honest with him when a nurse steps in to break the news.
The final moments of the father-daughter reunion are the most moving we’ve seen in the series.
Run, Dominic.
A runner spots Dominic Cummings and his family in Durham and makes a quick call to The Guardian. Journalist Matthew Weaver, who later broke the story of the special adviser’s highway run during the first wave of the coronavirus, begins investigating the reports. Not that Number 10 has given it any importance just yet, Lee Kane, Downing Street’s director of communications, said it was none of the paper’s “bloody business” where Cummings is based.
The juxtaposition of the Prime Minister’s post-hospital appeal to stay at home with scenes of Dominic, his wife Mary and their son playing in a deserted open space cannot be ignored.
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/this-england-review-episode-five-boris-health-hangs-in-the-balance-while-will-cummings-be-caught-out-42097819.html