And in yet another remarkable milestone, Stephen McGann, who plays the irrepressible Dr. Turner (and is Thomas’ husband in real life!), has written a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes look into the series, the recently released book Call the Midwife: A Labour of Love. For more than a decade, McGann has been at the center of the series that follows an eccentric and lovable community of nuns who are nurse-midwives at Nonnatus House, and the second group of nurse midwives (who are not nuns) but make up the extended family there. The universal themes of family, heartbreak, joy, childbirth, connection, and communication immediately saw viewers connect with the series. McGann refers to Call the Midwife as “our brave, fierce, gentle, tough little show,” which surpassed everyone’s expectations and became a massive hit to viewers; first on the BBC, and later on PBS and Netflix. McGann, who is both an accomplished actor and a sought-after British science lecturer, says that when he meets practicing British doctors, they readily admit that they enjoy the medical aspects of the show. “What we really like is the fact that this guy is such a great father, and even when he’s dead tired he is a really nice man who truly cares about his patients and his family," he exclusively tells Parade about his onscreen alter ego. “Being a good guy is a good thing, and there’s not enough of that on TV.” He adds that there is no secret formula for the success of the series. “It’s not a secret; it’s more complex and simpler than people think. When people cry or get moved it’s because people are responding to something in themselves that the show is mirroring, and is showing back to them.” Read on for McGann’s extensive look at Call the Midwife, living with the writer-creator, his deep affection for his TV family, and why he hopes the series will continue for many years.
Dr. Turner is considered to be among the kindest and most compassionate doctors to appear on a TV show. Do you take great pride in this?
I do. I believe that much of the popularity of the show is because people recognize these characters, and the audience recognizes in itself, some sort of innate goodness that they wish to strive for. It doesn’t mean they’re all perfect; they’re not, but there’s more natural striving in the Turners that people can recognize in everyday life than say another gangster movie, a serial killer film, or a heightened drama. All of which I enjoy and watch, but they’re a different way to do drama and I think is part of the menu. I think that what our series does is show community, compassion, and support, and I think that’s a valid reflection on life.
What does it mean to you that in the same episode one minute we are reaching for the tissues and the next we are having a nice chuckle?
Sometimes it takes you to dark places where it can be just so sad because life can be so sad. When you’re dealing with life, family, community, births, and death, sometimes it takes you to some places that even for us making it, it’s not always an easy ride. What Heidi always says is, “If the audience trusts me, I’ll always bring them back. But it doesn’t mean that I won’t take them to some places that matter.” Sometimes it is hard for the viewers, and it’s also hard for us as the performers.
Why do you feel that this show has such a loyal following in the U.K, the U.S., and around the world?
I’ve stayed with it so long because it is different from everything else that I’ve ever done. The almost visceral connection with the audience is incredible. I think the reason it is, and the reason I loved going back to write about it and do the interviews for the book, is that it allowed me to reflect on some of the things that I think might be some of the secrets to the show All of the actors feel very protective and preciously about the show. In our house, we have allowed Call the Midwife to take us along in this journey. So, when it’s done, it’s done. It’s been a most remarkable period of our lives because we’ve sort of mined goodness in a way. We’ve explored the nature of people who work in communities of care and goodness, and that’s a remarkable thing.
Your show probably has the largest number of babies that any show has ever had. I understand that 60-70 babies are used for each season and they work 15 minutes at a time so they are not stressed.
It’s wonderful; I love babies. I’m one of those guys who is a soppy dad. I was terrible at picking up babies all of my life until I had a son. Then the minute I had a son I was one of those really besotted dads. Our wonderful midwifery advisor Terri Coates used to say to me that she was the sergeant major of the babies. She would handle all the babies on set and she would look at me and ask, “Steve, you want to go with this baby, don’t you?” I would say, “Yes, please.” And so, she’d give one of them to me sometimes and I’d just walk around the set. Yes, there have been hundreds of babies, the eldest of which must be getting on in his or her teens now. And I love them all.!
Why are you excited about the new book?
This book is really different. We’ve done a couple of books so far, and this one is the best attempt to get everybody’s voices in. I was approached about this book in the middle of COVID when working was very tough. We’d had two seasons scrunched together instead of five or six months apart, between them. And because we had to film one late, we had to try and catch up, we were all very tired. And in the small gap of six to eight weeks between the two, I was approached by the producer, Pippa, about writing a book about our 10-year anniversary. She wanted to look back and asked if I would write something. I sent her an outline and explained, “I think we should go back each year and each season and go over the precious moments and the reflections from that time.” I didn’t want people to hear just Dr. Turner’s words, I wanted everyone involved—not only who’s in the show now, but all those great faces and people that made the show what it was all along the way. And they are all there. We then contacted everybody, and like a sort of mad school reunion, they came back from everywhere from all the 10 years and they wanted to talk about what the show meant to them. This included our beloved Patsy (Emerald Fennell), who had done off and created, produced, and directed the Oscar-winning film Promising Young Woman, and was at the end of her pregnancy, and we tracked her down despite her busy schedule she got in touch and her contributions are wonderful.
What are your favorite parts of your new book?
What makes it different and why the readers will really love is that there are wonderful nuggets after 10 years; some of them I didn’t even know. For example, Eve Stewart, our great designer, had to rebuild the East End because the town of Poplar in London’s East End doesn’t exist anymore. It has been poured over with concrete and modernized. What wasn’t destroyed by Hitler was rebuilt after the war. So, we don’t film there. But Eve had to go back and reconstruct the East End streets. Remarkably what she did was go back and make a mold of an East End house that was still standing. It was a mold of all the brickwork and through these molds, she constructed new streets in our back lot. There are wonderful details like this about how we actually put the show together. Since we didn’t know it would go on for years, we have had to go back and renovate them and take care of them in a way that we didn’t know how to do at the beginning.
Obviously, showing the birth of babies is a major aspect of the show.
Yes, and there was the aspect of how do you film babies being born? No one had ever done that before to the degree that we’ve done it. Also, in the U.K. there is the ‘watershed time period’ before 9 p.m. when you can’t cuss, show murder, or blood, you have to tone down the graphic nature of what you show because they assume the children are still awake. And we are on at 8 p.m. So, we had an extra constraint, which we were going to show a woman’s ‘business end,’ on pre-watershed television. We adopted camera angles that no one had ever tried to do that make it real enough without too much blood because it wouldn’t be allowed. We learned slowly how to do it, and now we’re very proud. I think there are a lot of people in the screen game now who have got their act together a little bit better with childbirth now than they had 10-11 years ago because people are familiar with seeing children being born a little bit more authentically than they used to be. We’re very proud of things like that. All those little details from different aspects are all in there, they’re all in the book. And it’s a lovely read, and I don’t just mean it from me, I mean it from all the other people whose voices are heard.
I know you have a science background as a science communicator (lecturer), but if you heard the word ‘Is there a doctor in the house’ would you be able to help?
No.Please don’t call me! People often come up to me and say, “Oh, I wish you were my doctor.” And I say, “No, really you don’t. My best medical advice is to tell someone to go to the doctor.”
Tell me how you became Dr. Turner?
My wife and I hadn’t worked together for 25 years and I knew she was making this six-part show I knew as’ that midwife thing.’ She was reading it in bed and felt she could do something with it. I went back to university part-time, I was at the Imperial College of London, studying science communication, and studying these scientists in popular culture and my wife tells me she is casting the midwife show and they are looking for an actor to play the doctor. Heidi and the producer, Pippa Harris, asked me to come in and read for it, and I’m reminding her that I am a student and I have my dissertation coming up. They explain that it is a small part, which it was in Season 1, and she promises to work around my schedule. She said, “Don’t worry it’s a six-parter with nuns and midwives in a convent in the 1950s and nobody is going to watch it.” So, I agreed.
But it wasn’t the sleeper everyone expected.
It virtually exploded. As it happened, everybody in Britain watched it. So, everything changed. I was still a university student in Season 2 but managed to juggle both parts of my life. What’s been fascinating for me over these years, and I still give talks in England and I do science festivals in England. So instead of going on to get my Ph.D., what I do is I have a chat about these things to people, Call the Midwife has been an incredible communicator on the history of public health.
Are your co-stars, including Sister Julianne (Jenny Agutter) and nurse/midwife Trixie Franklin (Helen George), like part of your actual family? After all, 11 years is a long time to work with many of the same people.
Definitely.Once you’ve done the show, we talk about it as being the Call the Midwife family. We have a very nice reputation for people coming in as guests and working with us and very often they don’t want to leave, and we don’t want them to leave because we all get on so well. It’s a very laid-back show. The nicest thing I could say about the show is that I think one of the secrets that give it a family feel is it was never a big show in intent. The way it started nobody thought it was going to be big news. It never had a massive budget. It was this little almost theatrical cast, and an intimate show in a birthing room, in these small places that became absolutely massive. It’s been able to hold on to its intimacy and its small feel, for all these years. We’re trying to dive into that gentleness and the gentle part of goodness, and the tears and the heartbreak that come with this intimacy. And inside we’re very much a family. Heidi often says, “I will stay on this because this matters, this is important.” I think that level of family involvement has given a very good vibe all the way through. When people come in, they feel that. There’s a sort of look they have after a year or so, and they go, “Ahh, you really are serious. You really do mean this.” It’s beautiful. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been involved in, it’s truly wonderful! Seasons 1-9 of Call the Midwife are streaming on Netflix, and season 10 will begin streaming on Netflix on Monday, March 21. Season 11 of Call the Midwife begins airing on PBS on Sunday, March 20. McGan’s new book Call the Midwife: A Labour of Love is available now. For more, check out The 42 Best British Shows You Can Stream, From Outlander to The Only Way Is Essex
