THE CREATOR

Medical drama is an emotional business. Mediacal drama involving babies is a sure-fire-three-hanky event. However, the Family Man, a new three-part BBC drama about the infertility industry, engages the conscience no less powerfully then it grips the emotions. Written bu Tony Marchant (Holding On, Crime & Punishment and Passer By) and starring Trevor Eve as eminent IVF practitioner Patrick Stowe, the drama pinpoints the dilemmas at the heart of the rapidly expanding - and hughely controversial - field of human genetics by focusing on the stories of four couples whose longing for a baby leads them to the edge of legality."It sounds naive," says Trevor Eve, "but until I started work on this drama, I had never come across the absolute desperation of wanting to have a baby. I have three children - fortunately we had them easily - and I suppose I just hadn't given a lot of thought to what it's like if you can't. Fertility is one of those things, like health, that you just take for granted until you're confronted with a problem. And then it takes over your life." Having visited several firtility clinics in preparation for his role, Trevor Eve was left with new reverence for "the miracle of life". "When you witness an embryo being implanted itno a woman, it's a hugely religious experience because, basically, you're putting life into a woman. your hands, for that moment, are the hands of God." This, he goes on, is the Gordian knot at the heart of the drama: "Patrick Stowe is a man who wants to please and accomodate people. But how far do you push the science barriers to achieve that before you're out of order, ethically? If science can do what it can do, where do you stop? These are questions posted by the Family Man, and they're questions that we, as a society, are going to have to answer."

Taken from The Radio Times, March 2006