Welcome to Screen Sisters, a collection of conversations about what it means to be a woman working in television both in front of and behind the camera.
As well as recognising their contribution to the industry, the series will also examine the highs and lows of working in media, how far television has progressed, and how much further it still has to go.
This time around we’re talking to DI Ray and ER star Parminder Nagra about her latest gritty medical drama Maternal.
Nagra is no stranger to scrubs having done a six year stint on the hit medical drama ER. However it was the 2002 film Bend it Like Beckham that was her breakthrough role.
Since then she’s featured in a number of successful projects including Netflix's 13 Reasons Why, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD and Birdbox as doctor Lapham (there must be something about those scrubs). However, until recently securing lead roles has been tricky for the star. Well now, alongside DI Ray, she can add Maternal to the list and it may come as very little surprise that she’s playing a doctor.
Nagra is joined by Lara Pulver (The Split) and Lisa McGrillis (King Gary) to play paediatric doctor Maryam.
What to Read Next
Maternal follows three female doctors returning to post-pandemic frontline medicine after maternity leave as they struggle to balance their new responsibilities. Nagra knows a thing about the pressures of juggling motherhood against a demanding career.
In this exclusive interview with Digital Spy Nagra opens up about the struggle, letting go of parental guilt and what it’s been like to finally secure a lead role that has nothing to do with her ethnicity.
Maternal is such an emotive show. What was it like to watch it back?
I had to watch it back twice because the first time you watch it, you’re going:
'Oh, God, what happened there?' or 'Why did I say that like that?'
You’re sort of picking holes in things but the interesting thing about the show is that the storylines are quite separate. There’s only a few moments where we come together as the three girls. I think we only realised that about halfway through filming. We were like, 'We’ve only got about five scenes during the whole thing because everyone’s storyline is so separate.'
But you actually feel like a punter watching it. So it was interesting to watch as a viewer myself, going, 'I forgot that happened.'
But, yeah, it is [emotive]. It takes you up, and then it kind of just slams you, doesn’t it? I felt like that when I first read it.
Maternal has three women with completely different experiences of motherhood. Why do you think it’s done that way?
Oh, God. Interesting. I suppose you’d have to ask [the writer] Jacqui [Honess-Martin] that.
I think just to follow one person around, probably doesn’t give you enough of a perspective, because this story is so relatable to so many women.
My feeling is that at the end of the day, the commonality that they have is: yes, they have careers, and they’re working mums but also they’re mums at the heart of it. Regardless of how different their experiences are.
What that means for each one of them – and actually, when you are juggling all those things, that actually becomes the common theme that holds them together.
So I think it is important to have different voices within the story, because there are so many other voices out there that are also dealing with the same thing, I would think.
Mothers are often told that they can’t have it all without it coming at a great personal cost. Is that something that you’ve experienced professionally? And how did that factor into how you played Maryam?
Once you have a child, your priority becomes that child. Then there’s a moment where you’re like, 'But I do want to go to work.'
It’s a thing with Maryam. 'If I go, am I going to love it? Am I going to miss them? What if I don’t miss them?' There are all of those conflicting things that are going on in your psyche.
I think that me going back to work was hard, because I hadn’t really been away from [my son].
Now my son’s a teenager. Going back to do Maternal last year was tough. It was a decision where I was like: 'how do I make this work? And then all the questions of, 'If I don’t do this, what does that mean?'
The scarier option was, 'I’m now just going to go for it. I’m saying yes, and then I’ll see what happens, and figure out the logistics later.'
God, I’m going around in circles here. What was your original question again?
Oh yes – the struggle, that juggling, and the feeling of guilt – I don’t think it ever goes away.
There’s a line in the first two episodes, it’s where my mum on the show says, 'Have you ever thought that one might make you better at the other?'
You need that, you know, your sense of self and I definitely think in the last year, when I went on that set, I thought: 'Oh my God, I love doing this. I love being on set. I love working with these people.' Just being Parminder as opposed to being Mum, and wearing those different hats.
I think it’s just as much giving yourself permission to do that. I think we might have put stresses on ourselves of what is needed. I think it’s individual for every parent and every mother.
But just being kind to yourself. It’s OK to feel frazzled and not everybody’s got it figured out, which I realised very quickly because I was like, they look like they’re swans, you know? And they’re all paddling underwater. You realise that everybody’s going through the same thing.
I think there’s also a pressure of, you know, having it all nowadays.
It’s OK if you want to stay at home, actually. If you want to stay at home? Good for you. Go do it. But if you want to go work, go work. If you want to do both, do both.
I don’t disregard the fact that sometimes it’s not easy if you don’t have your village around you. Nowadays it’s harder to have a village around you, especially if you’ve moved someplace for work, and then you’re having to rely on other resources and that’s always not easy either.
What do you think her relationship with her husband is like, if we were to really unpick it?
Well, I think, actually, they’re best mates. They’ve known each other since college so they know each other inside-out. He gets who Maryam is and it’s like, 'I know once you go back to work, what you’re like. You’re going to put pressure on yourself to go 15 or 20 miles an hour, and you just can’t do all of that. You need to give yourself the space to breathe.'
I don’t think that Maryam has found the tools of how to do that.
I think it could be seen in quite a traditional sense of: ‘You stay at home.’
I just don’t think that’s where their relationship is. I just think that they’re best buds, and he really gets her. He’s like, 'Dude, you’re really going to start stressing yourself out.'
The consequences of that is that you bring it home, and then it stresses everybody out.
There is that moment when she tells her little boy to shut up. We’ve all had that moment where we feel under pressure and you feel for her.
Obviously the kid on the day wasn’t there, and also I think those children hated me. But every time the camera came out, they went, 'Oh, no, there’s that woman who stands next to the camera.' So that was hard.
But they weren’t there for that moment. I think there was one [take] where I really went for it, and it was quite harsh. The tone in the whole room just went: whoosh. Don’t mess with Parminder.
Maternal deals with a lot of complex issues that women experience. What do you think the show is trying to get us to talk about, or discuss, or open up about?
The pressures on a parent of having to juggle all those things. It’s not like you just close the door and leave that behind. There’s a whole other life that you’re trying to juggle and sort out, and a million lists that you’re having to make, aside from what you’re having to do for work.
I just think this is happening. This happens in our society and not to feel guilty about talking about it, or seeing it, you know?
Do you feel like it erases some of that fear of being judged if you’re struggling?
Yeah. I also think with any situation, there’s always going to be extremes where people don’t get it, or don’t want to know. People who aren’t parents who are like, 'Well, why should I have to deal with that? They’re here to work, and that’s that.'
I think you’re always going to have that but as long as you’re sort of opening up the page to it, I can only think that’s a good thing. We’re just talking about it. You’re out there. You’re working, and you’re a parent. It’s hard.
I keep saying it’s kind of become my little buzz word: the juggle is real [laughs]. It really is real. Lara Pulver and I are best buds, basically, and that’s the other thing about having your team there, right? It’s somebody holding you up, and going, 'Take a deep breath.'
What does your son think of you having to juggle all of these things? I’m sure he’s rolling with it.
Well, he kind of has to roll with it. I’ve been doing it for so long. The last few years, I’ve been going to England a lot more. I think he just sees it as: 'Mum’s got to go to work and it’s a bit annoying. But as long as I get my – whatever – gift card for whatever it is, then I’m alright.' [laughs]
You know, a typical teenager.
He’s so used to it, that that’s what I do. I don’t think it’s ever really easy. Also, I’m a homebody as well. For someone who travels a lot, I actually like being at home.
Did the fact that your character is based off of real-life person give you a different perspective of the NHS and how did that impact the way you played Maryam?
I think once we started talking to them, you started to see… You know, just having no time. I think it’s in the first couple of episodes where Maryam sits down to do her admin stuff. The next thing, her pager has gone off again, and she’s up again. She sits back down again, and then she gets up again.
She goes into a room, and it’s a false alarm, and then comes back out again. It’s that sort of thing.
And she’s still keeping a very chirpy disposition, and is very on top of everything she’s doing, and just getting on with it, you know? I think that’s the thing about these characters. It’s that getting on with it. There’s a little bit of that, I think, from my past of doing ER.
Even talking to doctors at that moment, or observing back in the day, you could see when it would affect someone, but they would try not to show it. As in, what good were they going to be in the room, if they suddenly broke down, too, if they have to fix whatever the situation is? That’s what you’re there to do.
It's those moments in between – because it has to go somewhere. So where does that emotion go?
How does it come out?
It might be shouting at your kid. It might be that I’m not getting on with your spouse. It might be having a panic attack. If you don’t take care of that, where does it go? So, yeah. It did inform a lot, because otherwise, if I had been in that scene doing the compressions and crying at the same time, it’s not about me, is it?
Previously you spoke about being cast in roles because of your ethnicity. What has it been like to be a lead in this role where your ethnicity is not the main focus?
Lovely [laughs]. Just to work with two other women, and it being about these women who are [doctors]. This is the thing that they have in common and that’s it and yes, obviously I’m Indian. There’s maybe bits of that in the set dressing in the background or whatever which we have but it’s not sort of right up front and foremost.
It’s really nice and not to constantly be making references to it either because sometimes you can get cast like that, and then you’re constantly making references to it. You’re like: can I just be?
Like, I don’t talk about that stuff every day, all day long.
That was an absolute pleasure [in Maternal] And you know what? That was one thing that, when I spoke to Jacqui and to James Griffiths, our director, I was very passionate about. About making sure that we didn’t have any of that stuff play into it because I didn’t want it to become about that.
I was like: this show is Maternal, and these are the three women that it’s about. If we have anything in there that distracts from that…
I really did make a point of not wanting that.
Were they open to it?
Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s like… Even down to like… You might have one word in there, and I’m like, 'Can we just not?'
And they were like, 'OK, why?' And I would go, 'This is why.' And they would be like, 'OK.'
And then I’d do it, and they’d go, 'Actually, that’s better.'
It could be something so minute, but I feel like— and it’s not always possible by the way, because I’m not the director, I’m not the producer. I’m an actor in the show. It’s not always possible.
But, yeah. They were open to it. It was great. There were really good, open, honest conversations about it.
What do you hope women will get out of watching Maternal?
That they don’t feel so guilty about having to pick or choose doing either one or the other. They can do both. And ask for help. I think sometimes that’s the hardest thing to do sometimes, to just ask for help, and not feel too— you always feel guilty because you’re a parent, but you should not feel too guilty about it.
All six episodes of Maternal are available to watch now on ITVX with episodes airing weekly on Mondays 9pm on ITV.
Best Entertainment and Tech Deals
Coronation Street X Joanie - Gilroy Retro Newton And Ridley Sweatshirt
TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
