OUR INTERNATIONAL NHS: BBC ANNOUNCE NEW DOCUMENTARY WITH DAVID OLUSOGA

In a one hour special for BBC One and iPlayer, David Olusoga celebrates the immigrant workforce that has been the backbone of the NHS, from its inception 70 years ago to the current pandemic.

Throughout its history, the NHS has drawn in doctors, nurses, specialists and support staff from overseas, and without them the NHS would simply have collapsed, unable to deliver on its foundational promise of a universal healthcare system available to all.

But though desperately needed these key workers have not always felt wanted. Presented by David with his forensic eye for documents, artefacts and archive, the film tells the story of the NHS from the perspective of Irish and Caribbean nurses, Asian doctors and Eastern European ancillary workers, whose personal journeys expose revelatory truths about an institution that today more than ever has become ‘the closest thing we have to a national religion.’