ACTOR BACKS The nuke
WHEN Call the Midwife star Stephen McGann read a script about the scandal of Britain’s nuclear tests, he did not need to do much research.
Having witnessed the Hillsborough tragedy on April 15, 1989 with brother and fellow actor Paul, he knew how it felt to be a victim of a cover-up following the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.
“I have seen what happens when smaller lives get shattered by a big event,” he says. “The stories don’t get told, and some get hidden when they should get talked about. We need to change the tone of how we talk about the nuclear tests, before these people die without the justice they deserve.”
The first episode of the BBC drama’s 10th series, which starts tomorrow, tells of Derek and Audrey Fleming, and a problem with newborn son Christopher.
McGann’s character Dr Turner realises radiation could be to blame when dad Derek develops serious stomach ulcers and reveals he served at Operation Grapple, a series of H-bombs detonated at Christmas Island in the South Pacific in 1957 and 1958.
It is loosely based on the story of former Navy chef Doug Hern, 85, whose wife suffered two stillbirths. Their daughter Gilly died of adrenal cancer aged 13, and surviving child Susan suffers problems too. Doug, of Spalding, Lincs, was a script consultant.
He says: “I did it to raise awareness and get people to understand that they didn’t stand us on those sandspits and throw fireworks up in the air.
“We were effectively under nuclear attack. Covid is an invisible enemy people have been fighting for a year, but we’ve been fighting one since the 1950s.”
Dr Turner battles the Ministry of Defence to access Derek’s medical files but is denied, in what he suspects is a government cover-up. When he tells Audrey he can do no more, she vows to carry on, echoing veterans such as Doug who still fight for justice.
McGann hopes the spotlight – the show drew 5.4 million viewers at Christmas – will raise the profile of the campaign for justice for nuclear test veterans, which has been led by the Mirror since the 1980s.
We have reported how RAF pilots were used in experiments flying through mushroom clouds, soldiers on Operation Buffalo were made to crawl through fallout, and HMS Diana had to steam through a radioactive cloud for 16 hours to test the effect on ship and crew. Most of the 22,000 who took part in the tests between 1952 and 1991 have since died.
Research has shown survivors have similar genetic damage to clean-up workers at Chernobyl, and their children report 10 times the normal rate of birth defects. Last year, they were refused a medal on the basis there was not enough “risk and rigour” to their service.
McGann, who has followed the Mirror reports, says: “These people mattered
You could see their relief that the world realigned
STEPHEN MCGANN ON JUSTICE FOR HILLSBORO