9 June 2021
UKTV's premium channel W has commissioned a powerful documentary with broadcaster and musician Myleene Klass. The compelling one-off documentary Myleene Klass: Miscarriage & Me (1x60') will see Myleene open up on the trauma of her miscarriages, with the aim of breaking the taboo which often surrounds this type of pregnancy loss.
Myleene Klass said: "I think I needed to make this because I needed to watch this. After my miscarriages I had to try and find some answers, some peace, some solidarity with people who've been through it too. You just don't want to feel alone because the defining feeling of miscarriage is feeling alone."
"I'm getting to a point in my life where I'm finding it very tricky to find a woman who hasn't gone through miscarriage. Making this film, I've realised that so many women around me have had miscarriages. How can I know so much about their lives but not know something that's shaped who they are and the way they are?"
"Miscarriage still feels like a taboo. I'd like to help make these conversations a little easier. It can't go on being the big dark secret that we have to carry around."
Miscarriage is the most common kind of pregnancy loss and every year it's estimated that around 250,000 women in the UK have a miscarriage. Myleene has had four and she is still coming to terms with the heart-breaking trauma of her loss. In this documentary Myleene will open the diary she kept for the first time on film. She will revisit the painful memories that include suffering a miscarriage while live on the radio.
Through the course of the documentary, she will meet women from across the country who will also open up about their own experiences of baby loss, including close friends and family.
Myleene will also follow a major campaign led by pregnancy charity Tommy's, as they urge the Government to change the care system so that more families can get the help they need following a miscarriage.
Produced by Cardiff based company Hall of Mirrors, Myleene Klass: Miscarriage & Me has been commissioned by deputy director of commissioning and head of factual, Hilary Rosen and ordered for W by channel director Adam Collings. Richard Watsham is the director of commissioning and Steve North is UKTV's genre general manager. Executive producer for Hall of Mirrors is Tim Green and directing is Lucy Rogers.
Hilary Rosen said:
Miscarriage is a subject that has been shrouded in taboo and secrecy for far too long. We are so grateful to Myleene for her highly personal, raw and honest examination of its lifelong legacy and we hope this film can spark a bigger conversation.
Adam Collings added:
I am very proud to have Myleene on W, trusting us with her very personal story. Our desire for W is to be the place where people feel comfortable taking our audience on their journey, allowing us to tell authentic stories from a variety of perspectives.
Hall of Mirrors Executive Producer Tim Green said:
We're delighted to be working with Myleene in bringing this powerful story to W. This is a personal story that affects Myleene deeply, but it is sadly shared by so many women. Myleene speaks with an honesty and frankness that helps to break down the taboo around miscarriage."
Tommy's CEO Jane Brewin said:
Losing a baby can be devastating at any stage in pregnancy, and it's endured frequently but often silently because of the taboo that Myleene wants to tackle with this film. While our researchers work to find ways of sparing families this heartbreak, we need to improve care for those who do sadly experience miscarriage, and Myleene's support is a great boost for our campaign on this - as well as helping to break the silence so that people going through it feel less alone.
Myleene: Miscarriage & Me airs on the channel during Baby Loss Awareness Week in October.
To find out more about the campaign for better care that Myleene is following, visit www.tommys.org/miscarriagematters.
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For more information, please contact:
Gem Pinkney, Head of Consumer Comms, UKTV
Kelly Phelps, Senior Publicist, UKTV
About W
Sky 109/245, Virgin 124/191, BT 311 & TalkTalk 407 / On demand on Sky and Virgin W is UKTV's premium entertainment channel, offering audiences a dazzling mix of UKTV Original series with some of the UK's most-loved talent in front and behind the camera.
Part of the W family, Emma Willis trains as a maternity care assistant in Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, while Emily Atack asks herself some big questions in Emily Atack: Adulting and Stacey Dooley spends some time with extraordinary families in Stacey Dooley: Sleeps Over. For its first foray into scripted original series, W welcomed Lorna Martin's Women on the Verge and celebrity PR drama Flack, starring Academy award winner Anna Paquin.
Channel favourite Inside the Ambulance continues to shine a light on paramedics across the UK while Women the on the Force delves into the world of being a woman in the police. Inside the Operating Theatre takes that relationship further, getting to the heart of the surgeons saving lives inside the hospital. Ski A&E takes a look at the heroic actions of emergency ski services. And finally, W's hit acquisitions MasterChef Australia, MasterChef USA and MasterChef USA Juniors round out the offering.
About UKTV UKTV has been at the forefront of branded television for over 25 years, entertaining the nation with programmes they love. Its leading brands - Dave, Gold, W, Drama, Alibi, Eden and Yesterday - span comedy, entertainment, natural history, factual and scripted drama, and are delivered to audiences through UKTV Play, Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat and Amazon Fire. The broadcaster is a significant investor in British creativity and is committed to working with new and established writers, directors and programme-makers.
UKTV is part of BBC Studios, the UK's most-awarded production company, a world-class distributor with international branded services, and a commercial subsidiary of the world's leading public service broadcaster, the BBC.
corporate.uktv.co.uk | press.uktv.co.uk | @uktvpress
About Hall of Mirrors
Founded in 2018 by former BBC commissioner Tim Green, Hall of Mirrors is an independent television production company based in Cardiff. We prize excellent storytelling and innovative use of technology to realise ambitious projects. The team has made films and series all over the world, delivering adventure, specialist factual, popular factual, drama-documentaries, access documentaries, history and children's series.
We produce and co-produce original content for broadcasters in the UK and around the world.
About Tommy's
One in four pregnancies ends in loss; at Tommy's, they believe that every baby lost is one too many.
Tommy's is a national charity that works tirelessly to reduce the UK's unacceptable rates of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth. We fund pioneering medical research to discover the causes of baby loss and helps women at every stage of their pregnancy journeys, supporting them and their partners with expert information and care. Our goal is to make pregnancy safer for all and ensure that excellent maternity care is available for every family, every baby, everywhere.
About Tommy's National Centre for Miscarriage Research
Miscarriage is the most common pregnancy complication, estimated to affect 1 in 5 women, often with devastating and lifelong consequences. This can and must change - so in 2016, Tommy's opened our dedicated miscarriage research centre, the first in the UK and the biggest in Europe.
Tommy's National Centre for Miscarriage Research is a unique partnership between 3 universities (University of Birmingham, University of Warwick and Imperial College London) and 4 hospitals (Birmingham Women's Hospital, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, Queen Charlotte's Hospital and St Mary's Hospital), and includes a network of 4 specialist research clinics where women with a history of miscarriage can take part in research trials to access cutting-edge tests and treatments.
Find out more at www.tommys.org/our-organisation/our-research/our-research-centres/tommys-national-centre-miscarriage-research