Imagine discovering that the people you trusted to care for your sick child, the people who promised to help ease their pain and lengthen their lifespan, secretly did exactly the opposite – using your defenceless child as a human guinea pig, an experiment that for many resulted in fatal illnesses. This is the premise of ITVs latest drama, however, this is not a story of fiction.
The real life infected blood scandal remains today one of the UKs biggest medical atrocities. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has referred to the negligence and subsequent cover-up as ‘perhaps the greatest untold injustice in the history of our country’. As a result, 30,000 people were administered contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and the early 1990s, culminating in life-shattering chronic illnesses and more than 3,000 deaths.
Today, in hopes that the retelling will give victims and their families the platform and sense of justice they were denied all these years, the tale is taking to the screen. This heartbreaking true story unites stars from Happy Valley and Downton Abbey for ITV’s harrowing new drama Bad Blood. Written by BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Peter Moffat (Your Honour, Criminal Justice, Silk) and directed by Julia Ford, the RTS-winning director behind Until I Kill You. The show will retell this horrific scandal alongside as the victims and their families fight for the truth to be heard. It’s not one to miss, so here’s everything you need to know.
What is Bad Blood about?
The drama centres around the stories of four young boys, all students at Treloar’s, a unique boarding school for disabled children with an attached specialised NHS centre for haemophiliacs. The school offers unique and incredibly desirable specialised treatment for those whose lives would otherwise have been defined by regular and gruelling trips to the hospital. While parents sacrificed so much for their children to attend this special school, hoping it would improve their children's quality of life, they were being lied to.
While at Treloar’s, the boys are given Factor VIII, a revolutionary treatment that promises them the possibility of an increased lifespan and greater freedoms. But in reality, the children were treated as lab rats, infected with contaminated blood as doctors attempted to test new blood products on them. It would soon come to light that some of this blood was sourced from high-risk, paid donors in the United States, including prisoners.
What would follow would be a nightmare beyond belief. Doctors would soon learn that the children were infected with fatal diseases as a result of their experiments. The medical establishments failed to act, or confess, and people across the country are exposed. As the drama unfolds, the children at Treloar’s begin to show signs of the diseases.
What to read next
Bad Blood explores the institutional failings in the Government and the medical establishment that allowed this avoidable disaster to happen, as well as the cover-up that followed. It follows the survivors and their families as they spend decades fighting for truth and for justice.
Who is in the cast of Bad Blood?
Game Of Thrones and Downton Abbey star Iain Glen is set to lead the cast of Bad Blood, alongside Happy Valley’s Susan Lynch and A Street Cat Named Bob actor Luke Treadaway. No news yet on exactly who's playing who in this story, but a long list of some of British telly’s most recognisable faces have intrigued us.
Behind the scenes, Bad Blood has also brought together a seriously impressive production team. Ensuring the story is in safe hands, the drama will be written by BAFTA-winning screenwriter Peter Moffat, whose previous credits include Your Honour, Criminal Justice and Silk. The show is directed by Julia Ford, who recently won an RTS Award for Until I Kill You and also directed Believe Me and Unforgivable.
World Productions, the company behind Line Of Duty, Anne, Malpractice and Until I Kill You will be responsible for the project and its executive producers include Joe Williams, who worked on Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, another faultless depiction of a harrowing true story with fatal systemic failures. With so many recognisable names attached, this looks set to be one of ITV’s most powerful dramas yet.
How can I watch Bad Blood?
Bad Blood will air on ITV and STV, and will also be available to stream on ITVX and STV Player. ITV has not yet confirmed when the drama will arrive on screens, so there is currently no exact release date or trailer. However, we do know the show has started filming, so hopefully we shouldn't have to wait too long.
In the meantime, should you want to find out more about the infected blood scandal ahead of the TV show's release, I highly recommend The Telegraph’s explosively exposing podcast series Bed Of Lies: Blood.
The second series of the award-winning investigative podcast, hosted by journalist Cara McGoogan, investigates how a treatment once hailed as a medical miracle became contaminated, devastating the lives of thousands of patients and their families. The podcast traces the story back to a maximum-security prison in Louisiana, before revealing how blood products made their way to the UK, causing widespread illness, deaths and the now infamous cover-up.
What other true-story legal dramas can I watch now?
While you wait patiently for ITV’s true-story legal drama, we’ve selected a few more you can watch right now. First up, the award-winning ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. This true-to-life series divulges the extraordinary story of one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, in which hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting because of a faulty IT system. Mr Bates vs The Post Office stars BAFTA-winning Toby Jones as Alan Bates, alongside Monica Dolan (Sherwood), Julie Hesmondhalgh (Coronation Street) and Downton Abbey’s Lesley Nicol. Directed by James Strong, the filmmaker behind Broadchurch and Vigil, the series is available to watch on demand for free on ITVX. I advise bringing a box of tissues, it's a surprising tear jerker.
Over on the streaming sites, Netflix has Toxic Town – the shocking true story of how a group of mums from a small town in Northamptonshire found themselves arguing a landmark environmental case in court. After the mishandling of toxic waste resulted in the poisoning of nearby residents, an entire generation of babies are born with severe birth defects. The story follows their mothers as they embark on a battle to hold those responsible to account. The show stars former Doctor Who Jodie Whitaker, alongside Bridgerton's Claudia Jessie, White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood and Downton’s Brendan Coyle.
