This Easter, BBC One presents Florence Nightingale in a show that’s going to be a bit like Lily Allen and Friends mixed with Have I Got News For You?. The magazine show is to be loosely based around medicine and topical news items. Guests confirmed for the first show are Dr Gunther Von Hagens and Dara O’Briain.

Of course, I’m talking rubbish as it clearly going to be another full costume drama. This drama, set to continue the success of the Beeb’s period pieces, tells the untold story of one of Britain’s greatest heroines, based on her own words. Starring Laura Fraser, this film brings to life the story of Florence Nightingale’s spiritual and emotional breakdown after the Crimean War: a moment of crisis, doubt and failure that ultimately inspired her revolutionary career in medicine.

Florence’s personal story was one of amazing determination and self sacrifice. She was convinced from an early age that she could hear the voice of God (was she mad as well?) and it was this “call” which persuaded her to spurn all the expectations of her family and suitors, her class and her gender, to pursue a career which was regarded as little better than prostitution.

Nursing, she was quite sure, was her purpose in life and she did it with unflinching passion. After her return from the military hospital in Scutari, in 1857, Florence seemed to be about the only good thing to have come out of the disastrous Crimean war. The whole military campaign had been a farce of mismanagement that needlessly exposed British servicemen to suffering, disease and death.

Bent on vengeance, Florence badgered the authorities into allowing her to investigate the ineptitude of the military commanders, through a Royal Commission. What she failed to anticipate was what this investigation would reveal her own shortcomings – both to herself as well as to others. Standards of sanitation and hygiene in her hospital had been so poor, that she declared her “children” – as she regarded the soldiers – would have been better off, if they had never set foot in the place.

For a woman like Florence, driven by a strong sense of divine mission, these discoveries were utterly crushing, but nonetheless she insisted on “going public” only to be denied this right by the controlling politicians of the day. In despair, Florence withdrew from even her closest family and suffered a complete breakdown and a massive crisis of faith.

Speaking about the drama Laura Fraser says: “I saw playing the role of Florence as an opportunity to find out more about who she really was and why she became a national heroine. The first biography I read contained many direct Florence quotes and I was intrigued as I found her to be very funny, ironic, inspired and charismatic and like any human being, full of flaws. She was dogmatic and impatient and could be intolerant of other people’s limitations because she was so unforgiving of her own. She had to remind herself that ‘God is not my private secretary’ as she demanded a lot from life. Also my mum and all my aunties were nurses at various points in their lives and it’s funny to think that the reforms Florence made would have impacted their training even all these years later.”

Florence Nightingale has been written and directed by the multi-award-winning director, Norman Stone (Shadowlands, Man Dancin’, Tales From The Madhouse and CS Lewis: Beyond Narnia). It contains extracts from Florence’s own letters and correspondence.