Apple TV+ is releasing a new German hospital drama this week that promises to give viewers a newfound appreciation for medical professionals.
Created by British former A&E doctor Samuel Jefferson, Berlin ER explores the lives of doctors, nurses, paramedics and more who work in one of the most overcrowded and underfunded hospitals in the centre of the bustling European capital.
Haley Louise Jones stars as Dr Zanna Parker, the hospital’s aspirational new manager who tries to implement crucial but unpopular changes to motivate her staff, who immediately make it their mission to ostracise her.
She eventually strikes up a rapport with Dr Ben Weber (played by Slavko Popadić), a brilliant yet unpredictable surgeon who begins to harbour a secret.
Speaking exclusively to Screen Time and other press, Jones and Popadić shared how working on the series opened their eyes to the huge risks and compromises hospital staff have to make every single day.
Apple’s medical drama shows ‘immense sacrifice’ made by doctors and nurses (Image: APPLE)
“I’ve got a couple of nurses in my family,” Jones revealed. “And I had general respect for them anyway, and appreciation for their work, but that just doubled and tripled, you know?
“I think we still do not fully fathom what they actually do and the price that they pay. I just have such admiration for people who, really out of a pure desire to help other people, dedicate their lives.
“I also now have more understanding, I feel, for people who just by the reality of the job at some point maybe lose the love of it, in a way, or just decide for various reasons not to do it anymore.
“I hope that we, as a society, find ways to make their job easier and more respected.”
The cast gained a newfound appreciation for the work of doctors and nurses (Image: APPLE)
And Popadić added: “Yeah, I had respect too, for sure, I’ve been in contact with doctors and nurses and hospitals. But, in this one year we were intensively working on it… these people are sacrificing themselves to help others.
“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it now because you need a lot of experience. We talked to nurses who were, like, 30 years in the business, and you had the feeling they are even better than the doctors.”
Translating for Popadić, Jones added: “We hope that we were able to help people to understand that world better and that they feel seen.”
And her co-star added: “Yeah, that they’re people with real struggles and inner demons.”
Haley Louise Jones’ respect for medical staff ‘doubled and tripled’ during the series (Image: APPLE)
Jones also admitted she couldn’t be a doctor as she “can’t see blood and can’t stand needles”.
Showrunner Jefferson is also confident Berlin ER will give viewers a richer understanding of the intense pressure constantly felt by those in the medical profession.
Admitting he has a lot of “small ‘t’ trauma” from the job, he explained writing the series was a kind of “therapy”.
“It was very universal,” he adds. “The experience that I had in the emergency room in the UK was very much shared by the doctors we met in Germany.
“They’re very similar worlds. Medicine is relatively generic across the globe, someone having a heart attack gets treated the same way.
The intense new Apple TV drama is out this week (Image: APPLE)
“But the stress points, the kind of gallows humour that people had, the banter between the people, the camaraderie, the trauma that a lot of doctors and nurses have and the way that they didn’t deal with it and would find some kind of not necessarily good coping mechanism.
“I met lots of the same kinds of people that I’d worked with in the UK, but just in a German hospital. I could directly transfer my experience, particularly the emotional stakes of the job.”
The unflinching new drama is certainly not for the faint-hearted but Berlin ER is well worth a watch for those looking for a fresh perspective on one of the world’s toughest industries.
Berlin ER premieres Wednesday, 26th February on Apple TV+.