As is customary for actors auditioning to play people in love, Paapa Essiedu and Siobhán Cullen underwent a chemistry test. But the scene was not a flirty meet-cute or a moment of intimate tenderness. Instead, says Essiedu, “It was this big and long, quite horrible argument – and that’s how they wanted to see how well we got on.”
Seeing the two of them fight would serve as an apt litmus test for Babies, the new BBC drama in which Essiedu, 35, and Cullen, 36, play a couple whose relationship is rocked by a series of crushing miscarriages. “It’s a good scene because not only are they arguing but they’re doing a whole lot of work to try not to hurt each other,” says Cullen. “That’s how couples argue, right? You land the punches, but there’s also a way of couching it because of the love that’s there.”
Written by Stefan Golaszewski, behind the Bafta-winning sitcoms Him & Her and Mum, the six-part drama follows Stephen and Lisa as they struggle to conceive. The show taps into a real anxiety around fertility as millennial women weigh up the prospect of having children. Birth rates hit a record low in England, Scotland and Wales in 2024, continuing a steady decline from 2010. Women are likely to continue having babies later in life, and fewer of them.
In the case of Babies, Stephen and Lisa have waited until their mid-thirties to have a baby, only to confront the crushing reality that biological clocks haven’t kept pace with modern life. It’s devastating to watch as hope is snatched away again and again by the singular line on a pregnancy test, or the first sign of a stomach cramp that may or may not be indicative of something more serious. Propelling the show along are Essiedu and Cullen, who while not parents themselves, have the easy rapport of longtime lovers – that sense of hard-earned intimacy as palpable in silence as much as it is in conversation. Together, they bring a wry humour to the series even in its darkest moments.
True to Golaszewski’s naturalistic style, the series feels raw and unvarnished – there is no attempt to sanitise the experience of miscarriage, but equally no attempt to dramatise it any more than reality calls for. Around those scenes, conversations are allowed to unspool as they would in reality – Lisa’s bemused reaction to learning that her husband of several years is the kind of person to buy a packet of jelly beans every week feels completely real. “They’re going through this awful thing but it’s still about the day to day,” says Cullen. “And that involves how you spread butter on your toast when you’re really angry, and making cups of tea. I mean, how many cups of tea did we drink? Really, we should have been sponsored by Yorkshire Tea.”
As for the show’s subject matter, the invisible grief and multiplying longing of pregnancy loss, it is startling to watch not least because of how rare it is to see on screen, particularly in this prolonged TV format where it is the focus and not some gestured-to subplot of a supporting character. Here, even the small moments speak volumes, such as when Lisa must go into the office the day after her miscarriage, forced to make small talk about the weather and the weekend.
“To my shame,” says Cullen, “being the age that I am, and being a woman, I still learnt so much from this job.” She is not alone; roughly one in four women will experience a miscarriage in their lifetime, and yet it is still something swept under carpets and whispered about behind closed doors. “I have people in my life who were kind enough to share their stories of not just loss, but of pregnancy and the early stages of marriage,” Cullen says. There was also a lot of research involved – podcasts and books. Midwives were on set to answer any medical questions they had.
The fact that pregnancy loss is still, in many circles, a subject shrouded in silence meant Essiedu and Cullen felt a responsibility to get it right. “Because this is something people struggle to talk about and it’s something so easily hidden and kept within, the responsibility I felt was to approach this with sensitivity and kindness without knocking someone over the head with a sledgehammer,” says Essiedu. “You know, to be real and honest and never trivialise what is a big thing for anybody to go through.”
Their characters find ways to cope with mixed results. Stephen seeks comfort in stubborn optimism, a belief system of the “keep calm and carry on” vein that he inherited from his father. It’s an attitude that begins to chafe at Lisa who is sick to death of being told to “think positive” in the face of overwhelming and seemingly unending loss.
That’s all it takes, just bringing it into a conversation and into people’s living rooms on the BBC
Golaszewski never allows one side to be the “right” one. “There’s no right or wrong because this is something unprecedented. Everyone is doing their best to cope with something insurmountable,” says Essiedu. As for his character’s “everything happens for a reason” ethos, Essiedu can empathise. “I don’t know if you feel this, but sometimes I feel like in life, you’re just trying to grab onto something, anything that can help you feel secure or safe.”
Golaszewski is the latest in a small-but-growing group of writers exploring pregnancy loss in their work. Rachel Weisz played a gynaecologist experiencing miscarriages in 2023’s Dead Ringers. Shows like Severance, Fleabag, and Virgin River have likewise all explored the subject to varying degrees. In February, the Royal Court in London staged Guess How Much I Love You, an unflinching play by Luke Norris about a couple facing the impossible decision of whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. Incidentally, Norris has a supporting role in Babies too – this time as an actor.
It’s an odd thing to think that the people who will most relate to Babies are the ones who will find it the hardest to watch, but the hope is that it will open up space for conversation. “My favourite thing about making this show has been the fact that when people ask me what I’m working on and I tell them, it gives them this invitation to share their own experiences – of loss or parenthood or early marriage,” says Cullen. “That’s all it takes, just bringing it into a conversation and into people’s living rooms on the BBC. All it takes is one person to bring it up and then you see this ripple effect.”
Likewise, Stephen – a character who is in touch with his emotions, and open with his partner about them – both reflects a shift in modern masculinity while also, hopefully, affecting further shifts in behaviour too. “Generally, we’re moving away from the more traditional thought that dictates that as a man you must be strong at all times and never show weakness – I mean, despite maybe what’s happening in our political offices,” says Essiedu. “This feels like an extension of that progress and shows what is possible for men, and that will hopefully lead into the kind of fathers that we’re able to be.”
All episodes of ‘Babies’ are on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Mon 30 March, with the series airing on BBC One from 9pm that night
The Sands national helpline provides support for anyone affected by the death of a baby. You can call 0808 164 3332 free of charge, or email helpline@sands.org.uk
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