The Turners

Created and written by Heidi Thomas, Call the Midwife returns to BBC One for a sixth series in January 2017.

Published: 9 January 2017
If I had to deliver a baby for real, I think I would cope very badly! I’ve not learned a single thing since I began Call the Midwife. Our wonderful midwife advisor Terri Coates despairs of me.
— Stephen McGann
  • Laura Main plays Shelagh Turner
  • Stephen McGann plays Dr Patrick Turner

Q&A

Tell us about entering the Sixties.

Stephen: 1962 is very nearly my living memory. I love the Sixties, but we are not quite miniskirts and swinging yet! In ‘62 we’re just about to get The Beatles, we’re beginning to stretch out as a nation, and the war has finally drifted to a distance where we can begin to find a new Britishness about ourselves. For the Turners and for Patrick, this era’s going to have some nice – shall we say - stylistic changes. There are going to be changes to their lives that will reflect the period. Time and time again we’ve found when we show issues affecting women and society back then, they’re not necessarily well known by people watching now. It’s up to us to bring them back into the current mind, to make them clear.

Laura: Although it’s set back over 50 years ago, we’re now in 1962, the themes and the issues that people face in the Sixties still affect people today. We learn from looking back and shine a light on how we live today.

In what way has your character grown and developed since you started?

Laura: It’s been an amazing character to play. She starts off as the young nun on the team, then there was that moment she took off her wimple, and looked at herself in the mirror, and from then you knew there was more to her than being a nun. Series three was definitely a transitional series for her, everything she knew had changed. But now she comes back full circle, she’s Sister Bernadette again but with all the other things that she’d hoped and wished for, being in love and having a family. She was able to serve others again, which is a huge part of who she is. The ability to be that person again but with so much more in her life was lovely.

If you had to deliver a baby for real do you think you could do it?

Stephen: If I had to deliver a baby for real, I think I would cope very badly! I’ve not learned a single thing since I began Call the Midwife. Our wonderful midwife advisor Terri Coates despairs of me.

If you had to play somebody else’s part, who would you play?

Stephen: I’d like to be Fred the handyman, I think he’s a genius. One minute he’s a figure of fun and next minute he’s involved in a really moving moment. If Fred gets moved, we all get moved. Fred’s our gauge on the world, and if he gets sad, we all get a bit sadder - so we root for him in a really tender way. I would also like to be Sister Monica Joan, because I want the right to say some of those wild, poetic things! Oh, and the cake is a big thing, it’s a deal breaker for me. Lastly, I would like to be most of the babies on the show, because they get treated like the real stars. No one on earth gets treated better than a baby on Call The Midwife.

Laura: I think the beauty of Call The Midwife is every single character is so well drawn, we all love playing our own roles, I can’t imagine anybody playing any other role. However, it would be nice to wear what Trixie wears!

Describe your character in three words

Stephen: Enthusiastic, flawed and good.

Enthusiastic, because of how much of a firebrand he is, always trying to make things better. He adores his work and never stops.

Flawed, because he’s not a perfect person, he makes mistakes.

Lastly good, because at the end of the day he’s a representative of ordinary doctors everywhere, trying to do the best they can. I’ve had GPs come up to me and say: "We really like Turner because he’s tired, and scared, and some days he can hardly go on, but he’ll still try to go that little further". It’s the goodness that comes from ordinary people doing extraordinary things for the best reasons. That’s what doctors are to me, and that’s what I hope they identify with.

Laura: She’s compassionate, trustworthy and meticulous.