Filmed in the summer of 2019 before coronavirus struck, Critical: Inside Intensive Care is a powerful and moving observational documentary series following the staff on the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, south Wales. These staff are now on the frontline fighting the virus, but in this series we see the extraordinary work that they were doing before the present crisis. On this ward, life hangs in the balance. Our society is ageing and the staff on the ICU treat a high number of elderly patients, but the older and more frail a person is, the harder it is to overcome a critical illness.