Pick of the week
Joy
The story of how the world’s first “test-tube baby”, Louise Joy Brown, came to be born in 1978 has been turned into an absorbing tale of medical discovery and motherhood by writer Jack Thorne and director Ben Taylor. Cambridge biologist Robert Edwards (James Norton) and Oldham obstetrician Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighy) were the public face of 10 years of IVF research, but we mainly see the project’s ups and downs through the eyes of the team’s vital third member, lab technician Jean Purdy (a magnetic Thomasin McKenzie). Her struggles over her faith and health, and empathy with the childless test subjects, give an achingly personal dimension to the historic, life-changing quest.
Friday 22 November, Netflix
