Parminder Nagra sprints barefoot down a hospital corridor in her pyjamas. It’s the first scene in ITV’s promising new medical drama Maternal but the anxiety dream her paediatric registrar Maryam is having could easily be Nagra’s own. After all, 14 years since she left ER as Dr Neela Rasgotra, she’s back on the wards – and some.
‘This is not your typical medical drama,’ says Nagra, while filming in a St Helens office block doubling as City General Hospital. ‘It does that beautiful thing of straddling the line between the black humour of life and a highly pressurised job.’
The way Maternal, the first television script by playwright Jacqui Honess-Martin, juggles motherhood, careers and relationships is a treat. Nagra is joined by Mum star Lisa McGrillis as Helen, a registrar, and Lara Pulver as Catherine, a surgeon. The three friends have gone back into their demanding jobs after maternity leave.
‘Maryam wants to go to work to get away from the kids but at the same time she doesn’t really,’ says Nagra. ‘She’s doubting how she can make her work and family life function. But when she’s thrown into the deep end at the hospital, she realises how good she is at her job, too.
‘Us three actors have all got kids, and when you’re not doing a nine-to-five job, how do you make that work? For years I thought there was a secret formula until I realised there’s not. Everyone’s just sort of futzing their way through. You just figure it out – because you have to.’
For McGrillis, that meant her own baby daughter starred as her character’s child. ‘I was like, “Listen, I’ll just take a cut of her wage, act as her agent – 75 per cent, maybe,”’ she laughs.
Her daughter’s scenes coincided with McGrillis’s son spending time on set, too.
‘It was a wonderful nightmare, if I’m honest. I know people will be able to relate to this – that idea of keeping a hold of a part of yourself when you have a family. So many friends say, “God, Lisa you seem to be absolutely smashing this being a parent and being back at work.” And I’m like, “Oh my God – I feel like I’m doing a terrible job at everything.”’
‘I have such respect for the NHS… even when it’s failing, it’s still operating on some level,’ adds Pulver. ‘My mother-in-law was in hospital recently and there were 180 patients being admitted into that A&E that day.’
So what can a six-part drama add to that conversation?
‘Well, Maternal is absolutely shining a spotlight on the NHS in a celebratory way,’ says Pulver, ‘just as much as in an eye-opening way.’
Maternal continues on ITV1 on Monday at 9pm. The full series is available now on ITVX
