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Call the Jamaican midwife
Poplar’s latest arrival – one of the West Indian midwives drafted in to shore up the NHS – has a bumpy ride in the new series of Call The Midwife.
‘The culture clashes can actually be quite funny’
New Call The Midwife actress Leonie Elliott didn’t have to go far to research her role as Nonnatus House’s latest recruit Lucille Anderson – she just asked her family. Like Lucille – who arrives in this week’s new series after getting stuck in a snowstorm – Leonie’s parents and grandparents all emigrated to Britain from Jamaica in the late 1950s. And Leonie’s aunt was a nurse who came to the UK to train.
‘Lucille is meant to be from a place in Jamaica called Manchester, which is right next to where my parents are from,’ says Leonie, 29, who models Lucille’s accent on that of her parents. ‘It’s pretty exciting for everyone in my family; not only is there a West Indian midwife in this huge show, but she comes from where they come from. And best of all, I’m playing her. My family literally can’t wait to see it.’
The show’s creator Heidi Thomas has been eager for some time to show how the already understaffed NHS looked to the West Indies for nurses. ‘Lucille represents this wave of young women from the Commonwealth who were brought in by the British government,’ says Heidi. ‘She’s young, bright, optimistic and brilliant at her job but in Britain not everything was as she hoped and expected. We knew Leonie brought something special to the screen the moment of her first audition and as she shares a heritage with Lucille she takes the role very seriously.’
In the East End of early 1963, where the show is set, Lucille encounters racial prejudice, something Leonie’s family could talk about from bitter experience. ‘It was definitely a difficult time and that’s tackled in the show,’ says Leonie. ‘In episode two, there’s a mother having a stroke while she’s giving birth and she blames Lucille, saying if she’d had a British midwife it would never have happened.
‘My aunt had similar experiences to Lucille; some people are not welcoming and others really are. The good always outweighs the bad but she said the bad makes you stronger. She enjoys living in England, I don’t think she’d change anything.’
But Heidi and Leonie were keen that Lucille’s story shouldn’t focus on racism; in the end, like many West Indians, she got on with life despite it. ‘Racism is part of Lucille’s experience but it’s not the whole of it,’ says Leonie. ‘She’s resilient, hard-working and charming. She’s welcomed with open arms by the other midwives and nuns. They learn a lot about her culture as well.
‘You see how the ladies cope with coming up against someone from a different culture; simple things like she drinks coffee and not tea. There’s a lot of intrigue about her, like where she goes to the hairdresser. The culture clashes can actually be quite funny; she comes from a completely different world. Stories about immigration aren’t all about racial prejudice.’ Leonie’s stories about her family’s experiences even made it into the show after she told producer Annie Tricklebank about them. ‘A story in episode seven about Lucille trying to find the right church was quite emotional for both her and for me because it was something that happened to my grandfather. It is a very proud moment.
‘It shows what it was like coming to this strange country and it feels special shining a light on what these immigrant nurses and midwives went through. They are unsung heroes, and it feels amazing to honour them here.’
While her background makes Lucille different, she’s just another of the midwives; a job in which she quietly excels. And like all the midwives, her storylines tend to revolve around the patients. ‘One episode has an expectant mother with secondary tocophobia, although it didn’t have a name then. All Lucille knows is this lady is experiencing a pathological fear of giving birth, which creates a lot of problems.’
As the show takes us into the Swinging Sixties, it continues to mix lighter storylines with the deadly serious, and this series will feature a beauty contest and potential child neglect.
Leonie, who grew up in north-west London, says she was a huge fan before joining the cast so her first scenes on the show were terrifying. ‘It was when I did my first dining room scene, with the whole of Nonnatus House sitting around the table, that it hit me,’ she smiles. ‘I thought, “Wow, I really am in this show.” A big worry for me is doing this character justice. That got less daunting as time went on, and everyone was really warm and welcoming.’
Just as Lucille forms a friendship with East End-born midwife Valerie in the show, Leonie formed a close relationship with the actress who plays her, Jennifer Kirby. ‘We bonded straight away because she knows what it’s like being the new girl,’ she says.
Despite not coming from a showbusiness family – her mother works in childcare and her father is an account manager – Lucille knew she wanted to be an actress for as long as she can remember. ‘I always loved performing as a child and I knew the arts were for me.’ Leonie played a Jamaican immigrant in the 2003 movie Wondrous Oblivion and had several West End roles under her belt by age 12. Nevertheless, her parents encouraged her to get a good education, but after studying sociology and working in an office doing filing she decided to pursue acting again and was recently seen in an episode of dystopian drama Black Mirror, as well as the Lenny Henry biopic Danny And The Human Zoo.
A lead role in Call The Midwife is quite a leap, but Leonie should soon become a firm favourite. ‘Even if I hadn’t got this role I’d be championing it,’ she says. ‘Bringing Lucille in reflects how we’re moving towards greater recognition for minorities. But more than anything I’m excited for everyone to meet Lucille, and I hope they take her into their hearts.’
Call The Midwife returns this month on BBC1.