INTERVIEW
Stephen McGann
The actor, 60, on his love of babies, having three famous brothers and how he nearly lost his wife Heidi Thomas, creator and writer of Call the Midwife, in which he has starred for the past 12 years
What are your memories of Christmas, growing up with your four siblings?
Getting up on Christmas Day was magical. All four McGann brothers – me, Paul, Mark and Joe – were in two bunk beds sharing one tiny room, and my sister Clare was in another room in a small, terraced house in Liverpool. My dad, who worked at a copper factory, and mum, who was a teacher, always managed to make Christmas wonderful.
It’s a special day and that’s something I’ve imparted to my own son Dominic, 26.
How will you be spending Christmas this year?
The same way I always do: watching the Call the Midwife Christmas Special with the writer and executive producer who happens to be my wife, Heidi. Her family will join us and my son along with his Canadian fiancée Kim, who he met at Oxford University where he is finishing his PhD in religious philosophy. Heidi cooks a lovely Christmas dinner and we will all sit down to watch the telly with our party hats on. For me and Heidi, our stomachs are churning because it’s a bit of a work day for us.
The 13th series of Call the Midwife is set in 1969. What were you doing then?
I was a sickly six-year-old who spent a lot of time in hospital with various ear, nose and throat problems and pneumonia. But after the hurly-burly of my life as one of five, at least I got to have a rest and a lie-in when I was in hospital!
Your three brothers are all actors too. How often do you get together?
Not as much as we’d like to because we live in different parts of the country. I’m near Cambridge, Joe is in Liverpool, Paul is in Bristol and Mark’s in Somerset. Clare, who is a government lawyer, is in London. But we have such a laugh when we do.
Heidi has been writing your part as Dr Patrick Turner for the past 12 years. Do you get any special treatment or a peek at the scripts?
No. I never see the scripts before any of the other actors. When it arrives she starts to get nervous. I like to go and read it in the bedroom. I hear her sneaking around outside to hear if I’m laughing and if I do she’ll come in and ask which bit I’m laughing at. There are times when I come out with tears rolling down my face after an emotional episode. I look at her and say, ‘How could you?’ and she’ll just say, ‘Yes!’
But she did once write one of your secret skills – origami – into a script?
Yes, my speciality is the origami frog, which was demonstrated by Dr Turner in series two.
How
