BBC We Are England: How to watch Birmingham episode about night nurses on TV - what documentary is about

BBC’s award-winning regional current affairs documentary series We Are England came to Birmingham to film in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and now the Brum-based episode is set to air live on TV tonight, 9 August.

This particular running of the programme is a repeat as all 68 episodes of the series were first aired between 26 January and 4 April 2022. Nonetheless, this is a great opportunity for anyone who didn’t watch it the first time to catch it.

The show, made by six teams around England, based in Birmingham, London, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle and Norwich, discovers an array of topics from mental health to entrepreneurship to how things are made.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Birmingham episode, including what it’s about and how to watch it live on TV.

What is the Birmingham episode of We Are England about?

The Night Shift: Night Nurse - Birmingham is an episode of We Are England dedicated to the extraordinary hard work of doctors and nurses at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With one of the busiest intensive care units in the region, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital’s team look after the most critically ill patients across the Midlands, offering around-the-clock care 365 days of the year.

Even at non-Covid times, this highly-skilled and dedicated team is up battling to keep their patients alive while the world around them sleeps. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the NHS was under unprecedented pressure and this is what the episode explores in detail.

Following the experiences of inspirational nurses Neelam, Niamh, and Charlene over the course of a night shift, the aim of this installment of the show is to find out what it’s really like to be an intensive care nurse.

We find out how they witness first-hand the realities of life and death; it’s these nurses who are with patients in their final moments and who must deliver the devastating news to families when they don’t recover.

How do they cope with the pressures of the job and how do they keep each other going, especially in the face of such adversity over the last 18 months? Go on duty with Birmingham’s night nurses to find out.

How to watch We Are England on TV tonight (Tuesday 9 August)

Tonight’s episode of We Are England, The Night Shift: Night Nurse - Birmingham, will air on BBC One at 8:30pm.

All episodes, including this one dedicated to Birmingham’s night nurses, are available to stream and download via BBC iPlayer.