'Succession' writer Alice Birch portrays maternal healthcare in new light on 'Dead Ringers'

Writer of TV hits Succession and Normal People, Alice Birch wanted to find a beautiful way to portray childbirth on screen. With her much-hyped Amazon series Dead Ringers, the show creator does exactly that.

“We wanted to kind of talk not just about fertility, but about childbirth, and about the whole maternal health care system,” show creator Alice Birch told Rotten Tomatoes about the Prime Video series.

“I’ve not seen childbirth, or maternal health care depicted on screen, really. I was interested in finding a way to tell that in a way that was exciting, and cinematic, and hopeful, and beautiful.”

Dead Ringers was already a hit at Cannes where audiences erupted in applause after the screening.

Rachel Weisz stars in Amazon's six-part series "Dead Ringers", a high-concept remake of David Cronenberg's 1988 psychosexual thriller.

Weisz plays Elliott and Beverly Mantle, famous twin gynecologists who want to bring women's health into the 21st century.

The show deals with their toxic codependent relationship, their struggles to achieve their medical goals, and the politics of their Big Pharma investor, while exploring topics that have not been depicted on screen before.

The series is directed by a team of women and produced entirely by a female writers room. The show's themes include bodily autonomy, consent, and medical ethics from a female perspective.

Alice Birch is a British writer who has achieved success as both a playwright and screenwriter. She has authored various plays, such as Revolt, She Said, Revolt Again, which earned her the George Devine Award for Most Promising New Playwright. Birch has also worked as a screenwriter for the movie Lady Macbeth and written for popular TV series like Succession and Normal People.