"Live 1000 Lives"

22 October 2021

60s

Carry on and keep nursing

An almost unbearable burden has been placed upon the NHS in the last twenty months, with nurses often bearing the brunt. Our inept government's abject failure to respond responsibly to the pandemic, placed medical staff – especially nurses – in the frontline, and many of them died as a consequence.

The shortfall of PPE, and the absence of a coherent plan represented criminal negligence, and the weekly rounds of applause and saucepan banging were scant consolation for the brave stoicism with which these perils were bourne.

Now, medical staff – again, especially nurses – have new dangers to face. Idiot conspiracy theorists have taken to verbally assaulting medics in public, and as the recent murder of Conservative MP David Amess demonstrates, it doesn't take much to turn an ugly confrontation into a violent one.

And, as if that isn't bad enough, Brexit has created a desperate shortage of staff, a situation which will only get worse.

Into this clusterfuck of related crises steps this rather beautiful recruitment film for the NHS. Centred on nurses, it reminds the audience of the critical role that they play within our healthcare infrastructure. When the aim is authenticity, it's difficult to avoid representations which have been seen before, so the energy has to come from the way in which they're compiled, and it's in this regard that this commercial is particularly successful. The mood accumulates during the film's sixty seconds, with a growing sense of awesomeness forming around those who are willing to take on a task which is not exactly thankless, but certainly isn't offered the kind of remunerative gratitude which it deserves.

UK

Recruitment