'There's a wonderful tone of togetherness'
Laura Main and Helen George on the Call the Midwife community
Nicky Johnston
- Gareth McLean
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Helen George and Laura Main are unanimous: they won’t miss Call the Midwife. At least not yet. “We’ve all been saying that we’ll feel it most in April because that’s when we usually start filming,” explains George, who has played midwife Trixie since episode one. “So when that comes around and we don’t, we won’t have the support network and community that work has given us.”
“Apart from that first year, we’ve always known at the end of filming that we’d see each other again,” says Main, whom we first encountered as Sister Bernadette and later transitioned to Nurse Shelagh Turner. “Even that first year, we found out after the second episode that the show would be coming back. We’ve had rare and lovely stability for 15 years. We’ve never had to be upset at the end before.”
“And it is just a pause because we know it’s coming back,” George adds. “But it won’t be the same, with different characters leaving and whatever.”
Despite Main exclaiming brightly that “we’ve had 14 years of two Christmasses!”, there is an undeniable melancholy at Nonnatus House.
“As ever with Heidi [Thomas], the art informs real life and on-screen, there has been a lot of change,” George notes. “We’re definitely all feeling that in our lives off-set, too. But in amongst the grieving, we’ve had these incredible moments of togetherness, playing charades or reminiscing about the Isle of Harris or South Africa, or guest stars that came and went.”
“I’ve always felt very held, very nurtured,” Main notes. Of Jenny Agutter, Judy Parfitt and Pam Ferris, the three established actresses who launched the drama, she says: “They set this wonderful tone of collaboration and equality and togetherness that exists still. We all support one another.”
“That’s the best thing about this job, it’s not competitive,” George adds. “Because Heidi writes for everybody, gives everyone a moment and something special to play, everybody gets a chance.”
Why do they think that it’s resonated with audiences so much? “The show is about community and family, looking out for one another and how, when we do that, we are better as a society,” Main argues. “It is a lovely thing to get to play and when you see that volume of people tuning in over such a long time wanting to see it, it suggests that those values are important to the audience, too.”
For George, who says there’s a selflessness that “we’re sadly lacking in society these days”, it’s even more profound than that. “We’re afraid to be ugly on the screen and we’re afraid to be ugly in our real lives,” she explains.
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“But sometimes, real life is ugly. It’s ugly and it’s dirty and it’s painful and it’s hard — it’s f***ing hard — and all that is shown on Call the Midwife. Not grotesquely glamorised and not sensationalised. Just…” She reaches for the right word. “Truthfully.”
Authors
Gareth McLean
Gareth McLean has been writing about television for nearly 30 years. As a critic, he's reviewed thousands of programmes. As a feature writer, he's interviewed hundreds of people, from Liza Minnelli to Jimmy Savile. He has also written for TV.
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