The Crimson Field: Kerry Fox

What is your character Margaret like?

Sister Margaret Qualye is extremely sweet. She’s old guard. She’s a solider through and through, she’s a nursing solider, she knows her stuff but she’s very traditional, and she believes there is a right way to do things and no other way to do things, and she felt she should have been made Matron.

What is Margaret’s relationship like with Grace?

I think Margaret and Grace had a very close relationship. They depended on each other. They served together over different stretches. They know each other, and Margaret at one point in the past saved Grace so I suppose she believes that Grace owes her something. She also sees Grace as being younger, she trained Grace, she calls her her protégée, so there’s a very conflicted relationship between them now.

Who are Margaret’s allies in the hospital?

I think Margaret might be a little bit socially awkward, so it’s hard for her to find allies in real life, although those people who she does come across who have admired her in the past, and recognised her achievements and her credentials, her skills, and give her a great sense of pride. She appreciates them.

What was it like working with a predominantly female cast?

It’s wonderful and rare to work with women, especially on a piece of drama like this where the scenes are between women and they’re such complex, beautifully written pieces by Sarah Phelps, so it was a joy to perform them really. And like I say, all of us notice the same thing – Hermione and Suranne – that it’s very rare to work with women, because you so often end up being the single woman in a scene or the scene’s got many other men, and the complexity of dialogue in life and the way it’s presented, is wonderful - instead of the basic man/woman conversation!

How did you find wearing the period costumes?

It’s quite unusual to be working on something where you don’t change your costume at all, and are surrounded in mud for a large portion of the time. I was the only one who kept warm because I entirely coated myself in woollen underwear all the way through! We obviously had to deal with the elements – the rain – and our characters don’t seem to have coats, which I find really extraordinary!

The other aspect of it being outside all those days, and shooting in tents, was really fun for me. I had a ball, and also trolling through the mud – I just ended up picking lots and lots of blackberries because the blackberries were in season halfway through the shoot, and I made 20jars of blackberry jam, and blackberry and apple crumbles, and because we we’re out in the country lots of the crews had apple trees – so they were bringing them to me to make things with!

Did you do any research into the First World War for the role?

I did read diaries of women who had gone to War. And also I researched actually the Wars prior to the First World War, because in some ways they were actually quite relevant for my character, because of the sense of old schoolness. Nursing shifted so much in those four years, and where my character starts and through the script we try to set her up as being old-fashioned, stuck in her ways, from the past. So it was important to me to know where she’d come from, what she felt was important, and shouldn’t be shifted.

Does your family have any links to the First World War?

My Grandfather went to Palestine. He took his horse from New Zealand to Palestine, and then all of the New Zealand cavalry there had to kill the horses, they weren’t able to take them back to New Zealand at the end of the War.

How did you find working on the specially built set?

I think the main thing was being outside, being in the air was a joy, and we seem to have a very big sky down there in Wiltshire. We were pretty lucky with the weather, and also where I was staying there was a water park, so I realised coming from where I come from, I really need to be around water. It makes a big difference to me, so for me, part of it felt like I was on holiday most of the time!

Was there a historical advisor on set you could consult with?

We had a nursing advisor to help with things like the bandaging and how to make the beds, and things like that. Thankfully I didn’t have to do much nursing! I just did a lot of telling off, and sort of sticking my nose into other people’s business which I didn’t need advising on how to do that!

What was the most prominent thing you took away from your research?

I think the big thing I took from the research I’d done was this horrible gas gangrene, which was picked up by the soldiers in the field and the fields of Northern France, which was a bacteria which the British soldiers hadn’t been subjected to, and so it just knocked them flat, and that was why there were so many deaths instantly, and so much energy was spent trying to cure this, and that led to the development of penicillin.

My children’s great grandfather was one of the first soldiers to receive penicillin, and he received it on the beach in Normandy, and he just said that it was so painful. The most painful things he’d ever experienced in his life – but it saved his life. Actually I am going to a memorial in Ypres in Belgium next month, and sort of part of me thinks that’s why I want to go - for my children’s great grandfather, their other great grandfather was a member of the Black Watch – so I think armed with more knowledge from doing the series, I’m really looking forward to it.