INTERVIEW: ‘Call the Midwife’ is back, and Laura Main couldn’t be happier
Photo: Call the Midwife features Laura Main and Teddy Berriman. Photo courtesy of PBS / Provided by press site with permission.
Call the Midwife is something of an anomaly on PBS. The hit show has outlasted so many other British offerings, and now it’s about to launch its 14th season (or “series” for UK fans). The new set of episodes kicks off Sunday, March 30, at 8 p.m on PBS.
This time around, the midwives in Poplar, England, are facing some social changes in the world. The year is 1970, and the community members are dealing with poor housing, poverty and puzzling health issues, according to press notes. Also, there’s news that a most strange circumstance has happened to one local woman: Apparently she has immaculately conceived her child.
It’s all in a day’s work for these dedicated midwives. One of the fan favorites amongst the cast is Laura Main, who plays nurse Shelagh Turner (formerly known as Sister Bernadette). Main has been with the production for all 14 seasons, and she is so happy that her character has been on such a unique and fulfilling journey.
“She started life out as a nun,” Main said in a recent phone interview. “It’s 14 years that I’ve lived with this character for half of the year we spend filming it, and … it’s not repetitive. It’s fresh, and it’s interesting. And it changes all the time, just like life. It’s never stagnant or the same. Yeah, she’s gone on a huge journey, and that’s been lovely to go from playing the nun to questioning that vocation.”
Shelagh has also fallen in love with a local doctor, had fertility issues with her own pregnancies and started a family with a stepson, adopted daughter, unexpected biological son and foster child, Main said. “And [she] still gets to work as a nurse, so there are so many different aspects to her,” the actor said. “It’s lovely to have seen her confidence grow as she becomes more comfortable in her new identity, which is what she wanted. They’re a lovely family unit, and it’s nice. It’s the best treat for me to get to work with all of those actors, big and small. It’s a lovely family that’s portrayed.”
Half the calendar year is devoted to filming new episodes of Call the Midwife, and each time Main receives the call to become Shelagh once again, she becomes excited. The show and her character never grow tiresome. In fact, right now, as season 14 is about to be released to American audiences, season 15 is heading into production.
“So we’re currently in that moment now in that we’ll start filming series 15 in a matter of weeks, so we got our head in the game,” she said. “I have a costume fitting this week, and so it’s just pure excitement. And the nerves are less now than they were at the beginning. I suppose at the beginning, six months away from the character felt like a long time. There would be certain things you would do to get yourself ready for that, but I do think now once I’m in the hair and the makeup and the costumes, and I’m on that set, it’s as if by magic she appears. So that’s quite nice.”
One of the chief reasons for this pre-filming excitement is that Main gets to rejoin her Call the Midwife acting family, including Jenny Agutter, Judy Parfitt, Helen George and Stephen McGann.
“Being all together is really, really nice, and I have to admit the other lovely thing is, apart from that first series, where you’re waiting for the episodes to come out to know if this is going to go again, we’ve always known that there’s been another series commissioned,” Main said. “So it’s really nice. Every series I put my glasses away at the end of the series, and I’m not sort of mourning it too much because I know I get to see her again. And I get to meet with all of these lovely people that work on Call the Midwife who have become really close friends. There’s a lot of history there, and it’s just lovely to know that we will be all back together again really quite soon. This is the moment where it starts to get exciting again.”
Main admitted that the writers don’t clue her in on what will happen to her character, so she learns about Shelagh’s evolution when new scripts are given to her right before filming. That stated, there was an exception to the rule. Back in series 2, Shelagh, then known as Sister Bernadette, contracted tuberculosis. The producers wanted to ensure that Main knew her character would survive.
“I got a knock on my trailer door from the producer in series 2, and he said, ‘OK, so there’s going to be a script coming, and your character gets tuberculosis. But don’t worry, you will survive,’ which was pretty nice of him,” Main said with a laugh. “I think he was worried I’d get my hands on it before I was meant to and get a bit concerned.”
Main added: “Yeah, [series creator] Heidi Thomas is the most extraordinary writer, and in series 1, there was one moment where the character looked in the mirror as all the young nurses went out to a dance. You’re left thinking, oh, there’s something going on with this nun, but that was the only personal moment that there was. So when series 2 came along, it surpassed anything I could have dreamt of. … My involvement in the show, I guess, stepped up a notch. I’ve never felt the need to interfere. What Heidi conjured is so clever and beyond anything I could dream of, and also it’s an ensemble show. So it’s very much shared. I don’t ask to find out. I find out when I get the scripts. I like that actually as well because we don’t always know what’s around the corner, and that is certainly in series 2, which is nice to play with. Yes, there was this love interest, but they didn’t confirm that she would stop being a nun. So that was quite nice to play with each episode, that absolute uncertainty which direction she would go in, so, yeah, I don’t find out ahead. I’ve not been disappointed yet. It’s always a treat.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Call the Midwife, season 14, premieres Sunday, March 30, at 8 p.m. Click here for more information.
