The Baby Has Landed
This joyful and poignant new documentary series lifts the lid on one of the most intense and extraordinary times in any family’s life - the arrival of a new baby.
Published: 12 November 2019
Following six families over their first laughter, love and chaos-filled weeks of parenthood, it provides a window into modern family life. From young parents dealing with an unexpected pregnancy to a gay couple and their surrogate who have planned everything in intricate detail; from the Surrey family who are adding a fifth to their brood of pre-school children to the remote Northumberland farmers whose due date is in the middle of lambing season; this series features a broad range of families from across Britain, united by one thing: they’re all having a baby in 2019.
The series follows the families from the lead-up to birth, as their new-born enters the world, to the weeks after their baby is brought home. As the story unfolds in each household, so too do the recognisable and universal markers of parenthood – the extraordinary anticipation (particularly for the first timers); the chaos and sleep-deprived irritability of the first few days; the sometimes inevitable return to work and what that means for the parent left behind. It is as much about the adult relationships as the babies themselves - what the intensity of this experience reveals about the dynamics in each couple and what grown-up children come to feel about their own parents.
The Baby Has Landed (4x60') starts Wednesday 27 November on BBC Two.
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The Pierce Family
Surrey
39-year-old paramedic Helen and her husband Nigel (also 39) who works as a concrete surveyor, already have four children - Emily (5), Edward (4) Charlotte (3) and Rebecca, 18 months. And now they’re expecting a fifth.
Helen and Nigel went to school together, but lost contact for many years. Their paths crossed again in 2010 when Helen was at Christmas Midnight Mass in her local church and spotted Nigel singing in the choir. They started dating in June 2011, got engaged in October 2011 and married in 2012. Helen was always sure she wanted a big family, though Nigel was more ambivalent - he would have been happy to stop at two!
Helen and Nigel also have a lot of commitments beyond the family – Helen runs the local Girl Guides group, while Nigel leads the local Scouts troop as well as singing in two choirs. Helen also works as a children’s Spanish teacher and is doing an NCT degree. In order to fit it all in, they can regularly be found doing household chores at 5:30 in the morning.
The Nkrumah Family
Bedfordshire
The Nkrumahs are Hermisha (31), a legal graduate turned Prison Investigator and her husband Shabazz (32), an IT Analyst. They have two boys, Elijah (7) and Ezrah (5).
Hermisha and Shabazz have been together for 16 years. They met at school where Hermisha was a model student and Shabazz had a reputation as a bit of bad boy. After some tough love from his father, Shabazz straightened up his ways and now believes in the importance of early guidance for his own boys - what he calls ‘man training’. Hermisha had only just graduated when she first fell pregnant with Elijah but has built up a career investigating deaths in prison while raising her two young children.
There is much excited anticipation from the whole extended family about a baby girl - parents and siblings are eagerly awaiting the first twitch that might indicate the imminent arrival of Ramiyah - who already has her own customised babygrows.
The Nicholson-Bayoumi Family
Nottinghamshire
Syler (20) and Mo (28), who live with Syler’s parents Sara and Tony and Syler’s grandfather Pat in an old mining town in Nottinghamshire.
Syler was on holiday with her family in Egypt when she met Mo, a waiter in the hotel where they were staying. Over several years of trips to Egypt, a romance blossomed and in 2017, they married. Rather than setting up life with her new husband in Egypt, Syler’s family persuaded Mo to come over to England and he moved in with the family shortly afterwards.
Sara runs the local hairdresser where Syler also works and Mo is employed in a local factory making sauces - but as he only earns the minimum wage, money is tight. The pregnancy was unexpected and so initially the couple will be reliant upon the generosity of their in-laws when the baby arrives - though Mo wants to provide for his new family, so is keen to find a better paid job.
Also very much a presence in the family home are grandfather Tom (Sara’s stepfather) who lives across the road and cooks a roast for them every week, uncle Ken Dog , cousin Mitch and auntie Lily who are regularly in and out of the house.
The Saunders Family
West Sussex
Paul (35) and Craig (38) live in a seaside town in West Sussex. They both work as cabin flight managers for an international airline and met on a flight to Orlando over a decade ago.
They dated for a few months in the in the late 2000s and separated but remained friends. Ten years later after bumping into each other on holiday in Mykonos, their romance was re-kindled, and they married in 2018.
Both wanted children, and found a willing surrogate meaning they had the potential to both become biological fathers, and now they are expecting twins.
Paul and Craig live with their two French Bulldogs, Beau and Barclay, who are used to getting all of the attention, but will shortly have to adapt to a very different household.
The Odell Family
Essex
Mel (38) lives with her husband Tom (37) and two children Kiera (6) and Zach (4). She works as cabin crew for an international airline and first met Paul Saunders when they were on a post-flight layover in Cuba. Hearing Paul talk about how much he and his husband Craig wanted children, she was struck at the thought she might be able to help. Mel’s early experiences of living in a household where her own parents fostered children gave her a sense of the importance of family and the gift of parenthood.
After considering it over the course of the next few months and discussing it with husband Tom, she decided that being a surrogate was something she wanted to be able to offer Paul and Craig.
After many months of preparation, Mel, Paul and Craig travelled to Northern Cyprus where they underwent IVF. Paul and Craig wanted to father a child each, so each of them fertilised eggs.
The Wise Family
Northumberland
Richard (29), Eilidh (26) live with their daughter Grace, who is almost two, in a remote area of Northumberland on a 200-acre farm that has been in Richard’s family for more than 10 generations.
As a child Eilidh was diagnosed with autism which brought its new challenges to her family. But then eight years ago she met Richard at college and fell in love and they married in 2016.
After getting married, Eilidh moved in with Richard on the family farm - one of the last in the UK where they still rely on horse-power.
Pregnancy brings its own anxieties for Eilidh - for instance she has a particular fear of needles - and she’s due right in the middle of the lambing season. Richard is trying to juggle the needs of his wife and the needs of his lambs in one of the busiest times in the farming calendar.
