As floodwaters engulf a Yorkshire town during the opening scenes of the six-part crime drama After the Flood (Britbox), visibly pregnant police officer Jo Marshall plunges into a raging river to help rescue a baby. The urgency and life-threatening danger of the situation are apparent, as is Jo’s bravery and dedication to her duty. By the end of the episode, the plucky policewoman, played by Sophie Rundle ( Peaky Blinders , Happy Valley , Gentleman Jack ), has also waded down a street thigh-high in murky water to check on the wellbeing of an elderly couple and been first on the scene at a sewage-contaminated car park to investigate the discovery of a body in a lift.
Sophie Rundle as police officer Jo Marshall in After the Flood. Credit: Britbox Go Jo, you rock. That’s some day at the office.
But really? It’s fine, indeed welcome and wonderful, to see a pregnant woman portrayed as a capable and courageous person going about her work with unwavering commitment, refusing to regard the human growing inside her as an impediment. But perhaps this pregnant-woman-as-superwoman thing has gone too far? There was a time when even uttering the word “pregnant” was taboo, at least in America. Let alone showing an expectant mother who also had a job.
For decades, TV’s women were mostly consigned to the margins, as wives and girlfriends, as devoted secretaries, nosy neighbours and difficult mothers-in-law. More recently, as female characters have moved to centre stage, their perso.