Jason Isaacs to Lead Cuba Pictures Scripted Series Based on U.K.’s Maternity Death Scandal (EXCLUSIVE)

Jason Isaacs is set to lead a scripted series about the U.K.’s maternity deaths scandal.

Based on award-winning documentary “Maternity: Broken Trust,” the series from Cuba Pictures (part of Vice Studios) will be directed by Jim Loach (“Lockerbie”).

“What drew me to this project was its sheer scale: this goes far beyond one family or one hospital,” said Isaacs, who has starred in “Harry Potter” and “The White Lotus.” “It’s about what happens when institutions fail, and the extraordinary people who refuse to stop asking difficult questions and demand justice. With Cuba Pictures building on the remarkable work of the original documentary, I wanted to be part of telling the next chapter of this story.”

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Isaacs will play Dr Jack Hawkins, who found himself on the other side of the stethoscope when his daughter Harriet was stillborn in 2016. The tragedy – caused by alleged failures in maternity care at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust – led the doctor and his wife Sarah Hawkins on a years-long crusade for answers.

Their dogged pursuit of the truth resulted in the largest – and perhaps most damning — review of maternity services in U.K. history. The landmark Ockenden report, led by maternity expert Donna Ockenden, found that over a 13-year period more than 500 mothers and babies died or came to harm due to inadequate care over a 13-year period in just one hospital trust.

“Jack and Sarah – alongside all the families who’ve suffered – have an extraordinary and incredibly important story to tell,” said Loach. “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.”

Jack and Sarah Hawkins said: “We have been fighting for justice for over 10 years now – since the death of our daughter Harriet. We are victims. This was never our job, there are people whose job it is to ensure that mothers and babies make it out of the maternity unit alive and well. This is a national scandal that played out in Nottingham. A drama can get under the skin of this story in a way that current affairs and news cannot. We have often said ‘If you wrote this as a drama, viewers would say “nope, too far fetched, this isn’t reality.”’ Well, watch this.”

Their story was first documented in VICE Studios’ “Maternity: Broken Trust,” which followed families affected by the alleged negligence, including the Hawkins. It won an RTS Television Journalism Award.
Cuba Pictures has now secured the rights to adapt the story for scripted television, with “Harry Potter” star Isaacs attached to star and Loach set to direct.

“‘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 honours the bravery of the families and their determination to uncover the truth.”

Isaacs is repped by Strand Entertainment, Gersh and Independent Talent Group.