Looking into the Test Tube: The Birth of IVF on British Television

Abstract

The birth of Louise Brown, the world's first 'test-tube baby', has come to signify the moment at which technologically assisted human reproduction became a re ality. This was a highly mediated and visible reality, as this article explores through the example of a British television documentary about Louise Brown broadcast when she was just six weeks old, 'To Mrs Brown… A Daughter' (Thames Television, 1978). In the article, I discuss the programme alongside data from an interview with its producer, Peter Williams. Williams sought to convince the public that IVF was morally acceptable and to cultivate sympathy for the infertile through this film. I will consider how he went about this by focusing on the programme's visual presentation of Louise Brown, Peter Williams' aims in making the film and his sympathetic relationship with the 'pioneers' of IVF, gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe and physiologist Robert Edwards. I will conclude with a discussion of the political implications of this film and how it contributed to the normalisation of IVF at a pivotal moment in its history.

Keywords: 1970s; Britain; IVF; Louise Brown; Science communication; Television.

Figure 1:

A ‘refreshingly ordinary’ family – Lesley, Louise and John Brown at home in ‘To Mrs Brown… A Daughter’.

Figure 2:

Louise Brown: ‘A normal child’, in ‘To Mrs Brown… A Daughter’.

Figure 3:

Diagram of the female reproductive system from ‘To Mrs Brown... A Daughter’.

Figure 4:

Peter Williams (a) and Patrick Steptoe (b) look into the laparoscope in ‘To Mrs Brown… A Daughter’.

Figure 5:

Steptoe films his laparoscopy in ‘To Mrs Brown… A Daughter’.

Figure 6:

‘In she goes’ – the act of in vitro fertilisation as shown in ‘To Mrs Brown… A Daughter’.