Joy

At the end of the sixties Jean Purdy, a nurse and embryologist, joins the scientist Robert Edwards and the surgeon Patrick Steptoe, and the three spend a decade trying to prove that fertilisation outside the body is possible. Hundreds of attempts fail, the church objects, the press mocks and the funding boards refuse. Ben Taylor builds the story from Purdy's view, since she was the backbone of the work and the one who actually attended to the women in the trials. For years the commemorative plaque at Oldham carried only the two men's names, and Edwards campaigned a long time to have that corrected. Thomasin McKenzie plays Purdy, Bill Nighy Steptoe and James Norton Edwards. The screenplay is by Jack Thorne. Who it is for: viewers who like drama about the history of science and films about forgotten contributions. Who it is not for: anyone who needs distance from infertility and repeated loss.