Is this the end for Chris Warner?
Shortland Street veteran Michael Galvin talks to Kerry Harvey about the moment he discovered that his character, Chris Warner, has a life-threatening illness.
The future is hanging in the balance for one of Shortland Street’s favourite characters. Dr Chris Warner is about to be diagnosed with leukaemia.
The news, which is likely to leave fans reeling, also came as a shock to actor Michael Galvin, who has played the clinic boss for all but four of its 25 years on air.
“I was terrified,” says Galvin of his reaction when he heard his character was facing a potentially deadly illness.
“I got that script and in the notes between the lines it said, ‘Chris doesn’t know it yet but he has a serious illness’. So Michael the actor goes, ‘What? A serious illness? I know what that means’.
“So I go to the makeup room – because the makeup department know things before everyone else – and say, ‘Does anyone know about this serious illness Chris has got? It’s not that serious right?’ and one of the makeup women goes, ‘I think it’s leukaemia’.
“So I run downstairs to our producer, and she is in a meeting, and I interrupt her and say, ‘Excuse me, do I have leukaemia? Does Chris get leukaemia?’ And she says, ‘Yes’.”
Galvin says, horrifyingly, only
one in four leukaemia sufferers survive the illness and there are no guarantees that Chris Warner will be one of them. “I really think this is going to be my most memorable storyline. It’s certainly had challenges like no other (I’ve done),” he says. “His life really is in the balance in a way that it hasn’t been before over a protracted period and it gets worse, too. It just gets darker and darker for Chris. “I would say it’s probably the most dramatic storyline and, in a way, probably one of the most important because so many people have an experience of leukaemia – if not themselves, then with someone they know. “So that’s a responsibility for us to make it authentic and for me to make it authentic and I take that very seriously.” Galvin says he would hate it if viewers felt he had got it wrong in any way. “If people watched it and found some sort of comfort in the fact we were representing it authentically, I would feel great satisfaction in that. “I would hate people to watch it and go, ‘Oh no, that’s not what it is like’. I would feel we had really failed.” Galvin worked closely with
Shortland Street’s
medical advisers in his bid to make Chris’ situation as realistic as possible. “The writers are also doing a great job of not shying away from how horrible it is and just how sick you are for so long with the chemotherapy. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of honouring how horrible it is. That’s certainly something I wanted to make sure we got right, and I got right.”
While the diagnosis might be a shock, Chris’ health has been failing for weeks. The only one to notice is Nurse Kate Nathan (Laurel Devenie), his former lover and now partner of his best mate, Mo Hannah (Jarod Rawiri).
However, after a series of worrying symptoms – extreme fatigue, bleeding from the gums and unexplained bruising – Chris gives in to Kate’s nagging and goes for tests.
Their worst fears are confirmed. He has stage-three leukaemia.
However, Kate is the only one who knows and Chris swears her to secrecy, forbidding her from even telling Mo, despite the fact they are all sharing a home.
“She becomes a real confidante for Chris and really starts looking after him. Things start to become a bit more intimate than they possibly should, given she’s with Chris’ best friend, Mo,” Galvin says, hinting the relationship could become something it shouldn’t.
As he begins treatment, his family and friends rally around him but, like the stereotypical doctor, Chris is a terrible patient.
“He is at first in complete denial about how sick he is,” says Galvin.
“So if anyone tries to help him, he basically tells them to bugger off and leave him – that he’s not that bad. He totally refuses all help but then, finally, when he’s confronted with it, he’s still a terrible patient.”