From BAFTA award-winning writer Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials, National Treasure) and BAFTA award-winning director Marc Munden (The Third Day, Utopia) and starring Jodie Comer (Killing Eve, Doctor Foster) and Stephen Graham (Save Me, This is England). Help, set in a fictional Liverpool care home, tells the moving story of the relationship between a young care home worker and a patient, whose lives are changed forever by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last spring.
Some scenes were filmed at Church Farm, Thurstaston and the main image shows the cast and crew trailers at the farm earlier this year.
Sarah (Jodie Comer) is smart, but she’s never fitted in, not in education and not in work. Her family told her she’d never amount to anything but she unexpectedly finds her calling as a carer at Sunshine Homes. Sarah has a special talent for connecting with the residents, including one in particular, 47-year-old Tony (Stephen Graham).
Tony’s Young Onset Alzheimer’s has left him living out his days in care as his mind slowly deteriorates. His illness causes periods of confusion and violent outbursts, which the other members of staff struggle to handle, but with Sarah he begins to build a real bond. Sarah’s success at managing Tony and the other patients helps build her confidence and restore her self-belief.
Explaining the relationships between the characters in ‘Help’, Jodie Comer said, “It’s an exploration of how people on the frontline had to adjust and adapt to the severity of the situation around them at the outbreak of the pandemic and what they were left to deal with.
“Within that, there are these gorgeous relationships between the residents and care workers, one of the residents being Stephen’s character, Tony. It feels like a very human story, and it’s something that I think a lot of people can relate to right now. I hope that this film goes some way in telling the unseen and unheard stories of our country’s carers and the horrendous position they found themselves in.
Talking about the story, Stephen Graham said, “To me, this is a story about finding the hero deep inside ourselves. It’s about what people in the care industry deal with on a daily basis – it’s superhuman.
For me, this story is about a normal woman who is a bit lost in her life and finds out what her purpose is.
Stephen continued, “She meets this resident and they develop this amazing friendship. They need each other at this difficult time. It really shows what it’s like to become somebody’s carer, and what it’s like to look after someone. She goes above and beyond to try and make sure he’s safe.”
‘Help’ is on Channel 4 this evening, Thursday 16 September at 9pm.
Image credits: Aerial photo of Church Farm- Church Farm Events Ltd. Others Channel 4
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