Gran was a real life midwife.. it’s handy having nursing genes
How drama’s newcomer learnt to deliver
She’s away with the fairies... and I would lose my head if it wasn’t screwed on
MEGAN CUSACK
ON HER SIMILARITY TO CHARACTER NANCY
AS Call the Midwife newbie Nancy Corrigan delivered her first baby last night, it wasn’t the famous actors in her family who helped make Megan Cusack so convincing in the role.
Rather, Megan turned to her maternal grandmother Margaret Harris, who used to be a real midwife.
Despite her family tree reading like a Who’s Who of acting – with aunts Niamh, Sinead, Sorcha and Catherine, not to mention uncle Jeremy Irons – it is
her grandmother she is most keen to impress with her first television part.
Megan, 24, said: “My grandma’s a massive fan of Call the Midwife. She was just saying how well they capture it all in the show. She was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely. I remember things like that’.”
Megan said it had been useful to have nursing genes alongside the famous Cusack ones when she landed the role.
She’s now looking forward to getting back to her native Ireland and hearing what her Granny has to say about Nancy.
Last night the show’s eight million fans saw an expectant mum spurn Nancy because of her overbearing
bedside manner and forthright way of speaking. But later she had to rely on the young nurse after the baby started to arrive and no one else was available.
Although Megan says she’d be no good as a real midwife because she is “not good in high-pressure situations”, the actress says there are lots of similarities between herself and her character.
Megan said of Nancy, who arrived last night as part of a training programme: “She’s just a bit dizzy, isn’t she?
“She’s away with the fairies a lot of the time, I think. And I would lose my head if it wasn’t screwed on.”
Of filming the fraught birth scene, she
said: “I’m not going to lie, it was nerveracking. But when it comes down to it, Nancy can handle the situation.”
Megan also gave credit to long-serving co-star Judy Parfitt, who plays elderly nun Sister Monica Joan, for guiding her through her Nonnatus House debut.
She said: “It was nice having her give me a little bit of advice as we were filming because you don’t have too long to overthink it. You just go, ‘OK, I’ll do that. Let’s give that a go’.”
■ Call the Midwife continues Sundays at 8pm, BBC1. on