The wonderful Call the Midwife couple that has been together in real-life for decades

June 2024 · 2 minute read

Call the Midwife's Doctor Patrick Turner is a hero amongst the people of the poverty-stricken area of Poplar in East London. Viewers have seen Dr Turner evolve since the first episode broadcast in 2012, and he's made us laugh and cry on countless occasions.

We all cheered for joy when Sheelagh (formally sister Bernadette), played by Laura Main, gave into temptation and married the GP taking on his son Timothy (Max Macmillan) and forming a family together.

But our hearts also wept when we discovered Dr Turner suffered a mental breakdown in 1945, which required a five-month stay in a psychiatric hospital, a secret he'd kept from his nearest and dearest. Patrick Turner is played brilliantly by actor Stephen McGann.

Call the Midwife is based on the best-selling memoirs of the late Jennifer Worth and tells colourful stories of midwifery and families in London’s East End during the 1950s and swinging sixties. The BBC period drama was created and written by Heidi Thomas.

For nine years Heidi Thomas has brought us the heart-warming and sometimes wrenching stories of the nuns and nurses at Nonnatus House and the lives of Poplar's poorest residents.

But away from the camera Stephen McGann and Heidi Thomas are a real-life couple!

The pair have been married for over 30 years and share a son Dominic. Speaking to Good House Keeping in November 2020, Heidi admitted Call the Midwife is the 'sole topic of conversation' in their household, but she never gives her husband a sneak peek at the storylines.

She said: "I live with Stephen McGann who plays Dr Turner because we’ve been married for 30 years and so he’s the character I know best off-screen."

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