Channel 4’s new drama Help, starring Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham, reveals the devastating reality of the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of a fictional Liverpool care home.

Both Comer and Graham had approached writer Jack Thorne (The Virtues, His Dark Materials), keen to work together in a piece set and filmed in Liverpool. What became of this anticipated collaboration is the moving and relevant drama, Help, airing on Channel 4 on Thursday 16 September.

The film follows Sarah (Comer) and her journey into the care sector. Before March 2020, she is looking for a purpose before she finds her calling and proves to be an excellent carer. She builds strong relationships with the residents but forms a particularly strong bond with Tony (Graham), who is suffering from early-onset dementia.

The two support one another as the COVID-19 pandemic hits and the home struggles in the early months of one of the biggest health crises of our time. As cases and deaths rise at the home, the film illustrates the confusion of those in the sector at the time – with instructions unclear on PPE, positive cases, and visits.

Help portrays incredibly raw stories of the real people in these care homes – the people whose stories were drowned out by cases and death statistics at the time.

Ahead of filming, Comer talked to care workers while Graham spent time with those suffering from early-onset dementia. The pair were able to gather a real understanding of how turbulent the pandemic was for people living and working in care homes.

From the Liverpudlian voices and setting to the funding from Liverpool Film Office, the city has had a massive role in telling an important story which holds up a mirror to the government’s neglect of care homes. Caroline Hollick, head of drama at Channel 4, describes the film as a “love letter to Liverpool’s cultural heritage” whilst writer Jack says it felt important that the film was “Liverpool’s story”.

While both Graham and Comer have an amazing ability to get lost in characters who are so different from themselves, Sarah and Tony embrace the cheekiness, charisma, and good humour of a typical Liverpudlian pair.

In the midst of a great deal of pressure for Sarah, and a great deal of confusion for Tony, they retain that sense of solidarity which results in many light and sometimes rather humorous moments in a time of crisis.

With a great bond on and off-screen, Comer and Graham fine-tuned the script with the team to ensure the characters had those nuances in dialect which make it as authentic as possible. Comer believes “when people from Liverpool watch it, I think they’ll see themselves”.

For Comer, who is well known for her role as Vilanelle in Killing Eve, where she puts on an impressive Russian accent, the film was a real opportunity to return to her roots and pay tribute to the strong-minded women who she admired growing up.

She says: “It felt like a celebration [to act in my own accent], the accent of so many hard-working people I know.

“It was so wonderful to do it, and do it with Stephen. My accent gets so much stronger around him!”

Help will air on Channel 4 on Thursday, 16 September at 9pm

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