Dead Ringers star Rachel Weisz on playing twin gynaecologists in new adaptation of 1980s film

The new series Dead Ringers is based on the 1988 film of the same name, and tackles a reality that is all too familiar to many women.

About twin gynaecologists Beverly and Elliot Mantel, played by Rachel Weisz, the show pulls no punches when it comes to showing audiences the rigours of childbirth, and that the playing field is far from level.

Indeed, the lack of equality in childbirth is such a timely and contentious issue that it was in the news agenda just earlier this week, with the Women and Equalities Commission warning measures put in place by the government to address disparity in maternal deaths are "necessary but insufficient".

The first episode of Dead Ringers sees a black woman dying after giving birth - an issue writer Alice Birch told Sky News was "hugely important" to include.

"As soon as you start to read about the maternal mortality rate all over the world it's one of the first things that you learn - that black women are much more likely to die or suffer complications during childbirth," she said.

"That was the story that I think we talked about almost every day in the writers room, it just kept coming up; it's so shocking and we should be talking about it all the time."

And when audiences are usually presented with dramatised childbirth, it's often a far cry from the real experiences of most women - as the reality of delivering babies is often loud, messy and dangerous.

Birch says she had no intention of playing into the usual TV delivery room tropes.

"I feel like we see it in a very sanitised way," she said. "That's how it normally shows up on my screen... [the camera is] going to just stay on face, and then we're going to cut to the dad and then we're done."

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Weisz says the very nature of the character's careers makes for drama on screen. "It's their job, delivering babies, so it was just very practically that's what they do, they deliver maybe four, five, six babies on a busy day," she said.

"But it's also such high-stakes drama. I mean, the ultimate life or death - it's dangerous and it's happening every second in the world... I know it's such a cliche, but it is a miracle every time, I think."

With 25% of pregnancies in the UK ending in miscarriage, according to the National Childbirth Trust, and NHS figures showing that around one in seven couples have difficulty conceiving, Dead Ringers brings home the challenges faced by many prospective parents.

Can death be cured?

For Weisz, her two characters touch on this - and the lengths couples go to in order to conceive - in very different ways.

"Beverly in her own life has been suffering from miscarriages so she's been having a hard time staying pregnant. Elliot wants to fix that, and she wants to fix it for all women and she starts to do things which are, I mean, the euphemism would be pushing against the boundaries of medical ethics - it's just downright illegal, let's face it, but Elliot doesn't care.

"They're both visionaries in their respective fields but Beverly doesn't want to play with nature... Elliot thinks science is there to just improve everything for a woman, and Beverly has a much more natural point of view and her dream is to make birthing for women a beautiful experience."

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In order to create authenticity, experts were brought in to talk to the show's makers.

"There were obstetricians, gynaecologists, embryologists, endocrinologists, and then a longevity expert who came to talk to us in the writers room," said Weisz. "He was talking about the other end of life from birth... He doesn't believe, he knows that death is a disease that will be cured one day very soon, and with gene editing that will be accomplished - so that was a pretty stunning scientist to meet and learn about."

Dead Ringers is out on Prime Video now