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27 November 2014
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The Family Man

The Family Man comes to Â鶹ԼÅÄ ONE in March, Â鶹ԼÅÄ ONE, Thursday 23 March, 9.00pm



Introduction


Â鶹ԼÅÄ ONE's The Family Man, set in the highly emotive world of the fertility industry, takes viewers on a moving journey through the highs and lows, joys and sorrows of trying to have a baby through IVF.

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The story centres on the charismatic Dr Patrick Stowe (Trevor Eve) and the private fertility clinic that he runs.

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It also follows the touching stories of four couples who, each for their own uniquely personal reasons, turn to him for help in making their dreams come true.

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Producer Sarah Brown says: "More and more couples are using IVF to try and have babies, science is developing apace and what is considered morally acceptable is changing all the time.

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"By exploring the very emotional stories of four couples as they navigate their way through the world of IVF, The Family Man takes a human and accessible look at some of the key questions facing the industry and our society – where do the rights and wrongs lie?

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"Should boundaries be crossed if that is right for the individual patient? And where should the pursuit of the perfect baby end?"

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It's a question that writer Tony Marchant confronts in the character of Stowe, the successful and dedicated fertility expert.

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Stowe's sometimes unorthodox methods enable Marchant to turn the microscope on the complex ethics at play in the fertility business.

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Patrick Stowe is passionate and principled. Over the years he has helped hundreds of couples to have babies of their own, even though his own parenting skills leave a lot to be desired.

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More at home in the clinic, Patrick is ploughing his way through a sea of constantly evolving technologies and shifts in ethical opinion, but whole-heartedly believes that each couple's case deserves the right to be judged individually and that blanket rules should not apply.

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It's a belief that increasingly puts him at odds with many of his colleagues but could ultimately put his own health and happiness in danger.

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"Patrick is a man having to deal with not only the emotional demands of his patients, the commercial pressures of running a clinic and his own scientific ambitions, but also the fact that science and technology are moving at such a pace that it's undermining previous moral and ethical codes," explains Marchant.

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"What was right is now considered old hat, and what was wrong is now allowable. In that sense it becomes harder to get a proper footing morally because it's moving at such a bewildering pace.

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"He's very good at making children, but he's not very good at either bringing them up or knowing how families work, or how the children he makes become members of a family. That's one of his problems."

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Michelle Collins and Peter McDonald play Gillian and Steve.

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Gillian is a forty-something who has achieved two out of her three goals in life; she's a financially and emotionally secure woman - happily ensconced with her partner and running her own beauty salon.

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But supermarket aisles crowded with the buggy brigade, and a failed attempt to find a Romanian egg donor, bring home the harsh reality that her chances of motherhood might have been left a bit too late.

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Impatient to get things moving, Gillian turns to the internet and finds an egg donor.

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Kelly (Daniela Denby-Ashe), a student, is up to her eyes in debt, and despite the fact it's illegal, sees selling her eggs to Gillian as the answer to her problems.

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It seems like the perfect solution all round but none of them have reckoned on the unexpected and profound emotional impact it will have on their lives.

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Claire Skinner and Dominic Rowan play Natalie and Matthew.

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After numerous unsuccessful attempts at IVF, the desperate couple plead with Patrick to bend the rules on embryo implantation. If he decides to help them, it could give them a higher chance of conceiving but at what cost?

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After battling through many disappointments, can they come to terms with their situation, how will they cope with an impossible dilemma, and more importantly, are they prepared for the risks?

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Katy Cavanagh and Lee Ross play bus driver Tina and her partner Gary.

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Already stepfather to Tina's daughter from her previous relationship, Gary longs for a child of his own.

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Despite being strapped for cash, the pair determinedly attempt every possible route they can to conceive, until discovering the hard way that, however much money it costs, IVF can't always provide the answer.

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With a relationship buckling under both financial and emotional strain, and confused about where the problems lie, Tina is forced to put her own parentage under scrutiny and finally face up to a past that she has kept buried from everyone she loves.

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Sara Powell and Lennie James play Jane and Paul Jessop.

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Paul is guilt ridden and haunted by the tragic death of his young son. He and his wife still have three wonderful daughters, but nothing can fill the hole left by little Nick - except having another boy.

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With Paul genetically predisposed to producing females, their chances are unlikely. Dr Patrick Stowe has the technological means to help them, but with an ethical committee plus the weight of public opinion against them, can they – and should they – succeed in selecting the sex of their future child?

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"The experience of the couples is obviously traumatic and a rollercoaster, but that's true for almost everyone that goes in for IVF", says Marchant.

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"But you see them coming out the other side, so ultimately there is quite a redemptive message in there."

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The three-part drama also offers food for thought.

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"It's really about the kind of parents we want to be," Marchant continues. "How much choice do we need and how much can we handle before it becomes sinister and irresponsible?

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"Genetics and fertility treatment have never been more closely linked so it's tempting for people to think they can order up the right kind of child, but we also have to be prepared for outcomes that are less than perfect.

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"If we are lucky enough to become parents – either through fertility treatment or naturally – it is on the understanding that we have to love the children that we have."

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But, he concludes, no matter the advances, some things fundamentally remain the same.

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"With all the scientific and technological changes coupled with the social cultural changes of the last few years, the whole nature of families is changing.

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"They're not about flesh and blood at all, but at the love you bring to bear on the people that are around you, or the children you are responsible for."

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SA


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