VICE Studios’ award-winning Maternity: Broken Trust documentary is being developed into a scripted series by its Cuba Pictures label, with Jason Isaacs set to star.
The ITV doc investigated alleged failures in maternity care at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH). A recent review of the institution found that more than 500 mothers and babies came to harm or died as a result of inadequate care over a 13-year period. Among those impacted were Dr Jack Hawkins and Sarah Hawkins, whose daughter Harriet was stillborn in 2016. Isaacs will star as Dr Jack Hawkins in the scripted adaptation.
“Maternity: Broken Trust told this story with such care and integrity,” said Dixie Linder, president of Cuba Pictures. “It introduced audiences to the families whose determination helped expose one of the U.K.’s biggest maternity scandals. Our ambition is to build on that work with a scripted adaptation that honors the bravery of the families and their determination to uncover the truth.”
Jim Loach, director, said, “Jack and Sarah, alongside all the families who’ve suffered, have an extraordinary and incredibly important story to tell. It asks searching questions of institutions we need to trust and believe in. Drama can help bring injustice and uncomfortable truths into the daylight, and that’s our responsibility.”
Laura Warner, director of Maternity: Broken Trust and EP on the series, added: “Having made the documentary with Jack, Sarah and the other families affected, I realized there was a much bigger story to tell. The emotional and psychological toll of spending a decade fighting to be heard is almost impossible to comprehend. A scripted adaptation gives us the space to explore what these families have endured and why their story must never be forgotten.”
