Maternal’s Parminder Nagra on how she accidentally landed main role
Maternal: Lara Pulver stars in trailer for ITV series
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Maternal has started airing on ITV and the medical drama follows three female doctors returning to work after having children. Set in a post-covid world, they struggle to balance their chaotic work and home lives. Parminder Nagra stars as Paediatric Registrar, Dr Maryam Afridi, and the actress opened up about how she landed the role.
In the series, Maryam is in a high-pressure job and she is going back to work after two years on maternity leave.
She is very conflicted about whether it is the right move as she struggles to balance her work and home life.
Her husband is not keen on her going back to work, but she takes the plunge and is thrown into the deep end.
On her first week back she is not supposed to see patients, but as the hospital is so understaffed she is put in charge of the ward.
Parminder said she was helping her co-star Lara Pulver, who plays Catherine MacDiarmid, audition for the series.
She explained to Express.co.uk and other press: “Lara was originally reading for the show.
“Because of the pandemic, we have been doing a lot of our self-tapes here together in LA.
“But she was saying ‘I’m up for this ITV job, would you read it with me?’ and I said absolutely.
“So we did the tape and she got called into a directors [meeting]…she didn’t want to feel like she was looking down a fish bowl so I started reading with her.
“About halfway through I get a note from [James Griffiths, director] and I thought how dare you? I am not even up for this job.
“We finished the tape and she said ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a phone call the following day’.
“And I went ‘No I just did an ITV job, they are not going to want me back’.
“So I woke up in the morning and I did indeed get asked to put myself down on tape, which I did with Raza Jaffrey who is Lara’s husband and a dear friend.
“Then Raza was offered a job, so we just took our whole kit kaboodle gypsy family from LA to Liverpool.”
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Director James admitted he had no idea who Parminder was, but had a feeling she was an actor.
When he was told who Lara had been reading with, he was mortified at not knowing the Bend It Like Beckham star.
He added: “At one point I gave a note to the reader, and Lara was giggling and said, ‘You’ve just given a note to Parminder Nagra.’
“And then we asked Parminder if she would read for Maryam and she was brilliant.
“She brought this wonderful vulnerability but also got the comedic thing that was on the page.”
Parminder said she really related to her character, saying: “We were all doing it in real-time on that show, making sure our kids were taken care of and making sure that we were still able to do our work, and then feeling guilty if we weren’t there.
“But one thing that’s come out of doing this job is this: there’s a moment where Maryam’s mum, played by Shaheen Kahn – who played my mum in Bend It Like Beckham – says, ‘Have you ever considered that one feeds the other?’
“That Maryam’s not just a mum, not just a doctor and that they both inform each other.
“And I think that’s exactly what it is for me. I like being at work, and that makes me a better mother, because I’m basically just in a better mood. Otherwise, where’s my identity gone?”
Maternal airs on Mondays on ITV and ITVX
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