Joy is a film about the struggle to develop IVF (Image: NETFLIX)
Joy has just landed on Netflix and the inspirational film follows Bill Nighy as Patrick Steptoe, Thomasin McKenzie as Jean Purdy and James Norton as Robert Edwards. All three characters were real-life pioneers who developed the first ‘test tube baby’.
Patrick was an innovative surgeon, Jean was a nurse and Robert a visionary scientist. Husband and wife team Rachel Mason and Jack Thorne developed the story, with the pair explaining the project was inspired by their own experience of undergoing IVF to have their son.
Joy tells the remarkable story behind the ground-breaking birth of Louise Joy Brown in 1978, the world’s first IVF baby, and the tireless 10-year journey to make it possible. The story is told through the perspective of Jean, an embryologist, who joined forces with Robert and Patrick to unlock the puzzle of infertility by in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
added: “The film celebrates the power of perseverance and the wonders of science as it follows this maverick trio of visionaries who overcame tremendous odds and opposition to realise their dream, and in doing so allowed millions of people to dream with them.”
The real Patrick Steptoe became the Director of the Centre for Human Reproduction, Oldham in 1969. Here he collected the ova from volunteering infertile women who saw him as their last hope to achieve a pregnancy.
Patrick Steptoe, Jean Purdy and physiologist Robert Edwards at the birth of Louise Brown (Image: PA)
Jean began her work with Steptoe and Robert Edwards as a lab technician and played an increasingly vital role.
Her job was so crucial that, when she took time off to care for her sick mother, work was forced to come to a halt.
The trio endured a lot of criticism and hostility towards their work, but in the end, it was Jean herself who first saw that a fertilised egg, which was to become Louise Brown, was dividing to make new cells.
The birth of Louise in 1978 changed perceptions and the team founded the Bourn Hall Clinic, Cambridgeshire in 1980 to continue their work.
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Louise Brown, the world’s first test tube baby during a memorial service for Jean Purdy (Image: PA)
A total of 370 IVF children were conceived during Jean’s career and following the publication of Edwards’ papers in the 2010s, her contributions to IVF were publicly recognised.
Devastatingly, she was only 39 years old when she died from skin cancer, having only been ill for a short time.
Despite being a central figure in IVF development, her contributions were largely forgotten, perhaps due to her tragic early death.
Louise, the first ever IVF baby, is now 46 years old and is married with two children, and Robert Edwards even attended her wedding.
Her younger sister, Natalie Brown, was also conceived through IVF four years later.
Joy is available to watch on now