If there is one month of the year when we need plenty of new TV shows and dramas to watch and enjoy, it's January. And ITV has a brand new series that may just do the trick on these cold winter nights.
Maternal is the network's latest offering which starts on Monday night (January 16). The new medical drama is a six-part series about three female doctors returning to post-pandemic frontline medicine after maternity leave and having to heroically balance the intense demands of the NHS and motherhood
According to ITV, the drama "explores working motherhood with wit, warmth and humour and offers a unique perspective on our beloved , overstretched NHS, and the people who hold it together. Sometimes."
Leading the cast are actresses Parminder Nagra, Lara Pulver, and Lisa McGrillis as Dr Maryam Afridi, Ms Catherine MacDiarmid, and Dr Helen Cavendish.
Many viewers are likely to recognise Parminder from her starring role in Bend It Like Beckham. The 47-year-old played Jess Bhamra in the hit film before later going on to star as Dr. Neela Rasgotra in the hit American medical drama, ER.
Since then she has appeared as Meera Malik in the NBC crime drama series The Blacklist and in a recurring role on the ABC/Marvel Television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Ellen Nadeer. In 2018, Parminder joined the second season of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why as Priya Singh, the new counsellor of Liberty High, and more recently appeared in ITV police drama DI Ray.
Lara, meanwhile, has been in a variety of primetime TV dramas including starring as Erin Watts in Spooks and Irene Adler in Sherlock. She also starred in the third series of BBC legal drama The Split. But away from the small screen, Lara won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical in the West End's revival of the Broadway musical Gypsy.
The 42-year-old was previously married to American actor Josh Dallas, who she met in 2003 while he was in the UK studying at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. After divorcing in 2011, Lara started dating fellow Spooks actor Raza Jaffrey in 2012 before marrying two years later. The couple share two children together.
And Lisa starred opposite Lesley Manville in BBC sitcom Mum and has also starred in Death in Paradise, No Offence, Deadwater Fell and more recently, Channel 4's Somewhere Boy. Her husband, Stuart Martin, is also an actor and the pair are said to have met at a Christmas party in the National Theatre bar. The couple have two children.
Also making up the cast is Homeland actor Raza Jaffrey who plays Jack Oliviera and Motherland star Oliver Chris who plays Guy Cavendish.
While set in Manchester, Maternal was filmed in Liverpool. The production company used Edge Hill Health Centre on Edge Lane, and Liverpool Innovation Park for the series.
Maternal begins on Monday, January 16, at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.
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