Call the Midwife
Star Stephen Mcgann on the big stories in this week's Call The Midwife
DRAMA Call the Midwife SUNDAY / BBC1 / 8.00Pm
Our friends at Nonnatus House are under pressure this week as Barbara (Charlotte Ritchie) battles meningococcal septicaemia in hospital.
As Dr Turner (Stephen Mcgann) supports her stunned husband Tom (Jack Ashton), he also faces a tricky case at a reform school. Here, in an exclusive interview with TV Times, Stephen, 55, tells us more…
What impact does Barbara’s fight for survival have on her friends? Barbara’s so full of life but this illness is vicious and it has a knock-on effect on everyone because they’re like a family. It’s a crisis and a terrible worry but they have to carry on as professionals.
What does Dr Turner discover at the reform school?
He really bonds with this lad who has a pregnant wife. He’s a car thief and Dr
Turner knows his family’s never going to get on its feet, so he wants to establish ground for him to be able to start again.
Dr Turner’s son Timothy
(Max Macmillan) is also causing trouble because he wants to go to a Rolling Stones concert… Tim’s being a typical teenager, but the teen culture is alien to Dr Turner and he feels his son is moving away from him. He’s more of a Glenn Miller man!
Do you complain to your wife Heidi Thomas, the show’s creator, for making you cry when you read the scripts?!
Yes! I read them in the bedroom and she waits outside to hear what I think. Once I came out in tears saying, ‘How could you?!’ She said, ‘Excellent, that’s what I wanted!’
What is it like working with the babies who play Dr Turner’s youngest son Teddy?
Brilliant! I was nervous about picking up babies before I had a child [son Dominic, 21, with Heidi] but now I walk around the set singing to them all.
Laura Main, who plays Dr Turner’s wife Shelagh, is touring in Shrek The Musical as Princess Fiona. Have you been to see her?
Yes, I surprised her by turning up with Charlotte and Annabelle Apsion [Vi Buckle] – it was like This is Your Life!
Teen culture is alien to Dr Turner and he feels his son is moving away
drama / 8.00pm / BBC1
our hearts go out to the residents of Nonnatus House this week. They are fearing for one of their own as Barbara fights for her life in hospital after being diagnosed with meningitis. While Tom is desperate to stay by her side, Phyllis is bustling around re-organising rotas and supporting Tom while trying to keep a lid on her own worries. Meanwhile, homesick Lucille makes some new friends, and Dr Turner has a tough case on his hands when, at a local reform school, he comes into contact with a troubled teenage car thief who is being kept apart from his pregnant young wife.
Stephen Mcgann interview: see page 21