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Standing on the shoulders of Oscar-bothering British boffin dramas such as The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game, Ben Taylor's (Sex Education) big-screen debut is a gentle proposition that would fit snugly into the Christmas TV schedules. It follows young nurse/embryologist Jean (Thomasin McKenzie), scientist Dr Robert Edwards (James Norton), known as Bob, and obstetrician Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighy) from 1968-1978 as they create the first “test-tube baby” through painstaking — and often painful — trial and error.

While the script serves up a few clunkers — “You truly are impossible, aren’t you?” Jean tells Bob with an indulgent smile; “We’re making the impossible possible!” he marvels — it always has the ring of emotional truth about it. Screenwriter Jack Thorne (Enola Holmes) and his wife Rachel Mason, who developed the story with Emma Gordon and Shaun Topp, went through IVF themselves, so they know how brutal even a...

The quest to develop IVF plays out in predictable and thoroughly heartwarming fashion in Ben Taylor’s Netflix film. Here’s our Joy review.

Picture the scene: James Norton, looking less like Happy Valley’s rotten ruffian Tommy Lee Royce and more like an overenthusiastic biology postgrad, is desperate to convince a colleague of his revolutionary idea. What if, he posits with the scientific professionalism of a vaguely northern labrador, we could fertilise an egg outside the womb? What if we could produce an embryo in, to pick a piece of lab equipment entirely at random, a test tube?

The colleague isn’t convinced. “We’ll unite them all against us”, Bill Nighy’s character reminds him. The church, the medical establishment, the media. But Doctor Marley & Me has his trump card. “We’ll have the mothers”, he whispers. The score swells; Nighy’s eyes twinkle; history is made.

If...

This year’s Cunard Gala at the 68th BFI London Film Festival will open with the world premiere of Joy starring Bill Nighy, James Norton, and Thomasin McKenzie.

The cast of Joy, which tells the true story behind the world’s first “test-tube baby” in 1978, will be in attendance, the Lff also confirmed.

Told through the perspective of Jean Purdy (McKenzie), a young nurse and embryologist, who joined forces with scientist Robert Edwards (Norton) and surgeon Patrick Steptoe (Nighy) to unlock the puzzle of infertility by pioneering in vitro fertilization (IVF). “The period drama 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 realize their dream, and in doing so allowed millions of people to dream with them,” a plot synopsis reads.

Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie, James Norton in ‘Joy’.

Director Ben Taylor (Sex Education,...