STAR of Call the Midwife, Stephen McGann delves into is Irish roots in his new book Flesh and Blood.
Best known as Doctor Turner in the hit BBC drama series, McGann indulges his passion for genealogy to tells the story of his family through seven maladies - diseases, wounds or ailments that have afflicted his relatives over the last century and a half, and helped mould him into the man he is today.
With roots in Donegal, his family survived famine-ravaged and later settled in Victorian Liverpool.
Some of them became soldiers while another would be the last man to step off the SS Titanic as it sank beneath the icy waves.
From a family of acting brothers including Joe, Paul and Mark, he began his professional career in 1982, starring in the West End musical Yakety Yak.
He is married to the writer Heidi Thomas.
Flesh and Blood - A History of My Family in Seven Maladies is out now, published by Simon and Schuster.
We catch up with the star to find out...
What are you up to right now?
Learning lines for Call the Midwife. We’re filming series seven at the moment, so I have to use all those long medical words and pretend I can say them easily!
Who are your heroes?
My mum. Eighty-two years old and still sharp as a tack. She’s wise, curious and funny. And a total inspiration to her kids.
What's been the best decade of your life so far and why?
Without doubt this one. My fifties. No word of a lie. You might be older, but you are so much happier in your own skin. I would NEVER go back to being young again. Every time me and my other half pass a queue for a nightclub we thank God we’re going back home to bed!
What record sends a shiver down your spine?
Many do, but right now? Julia by John Lennon. Pure grief and a child’s love distilled into song.
What is your favourite place in Ireland?
That’s an easy one. Donegal, where my family filmed the TV series The Hanging Gale in the nineties. Breathtaking landscape and beautiful people.
What makes you angry?
The continued unequal and demeaning treatment of women in society, and particularly on social media. It’s mean, selfish, stupid, illogical, cruel, and totally counter-productive for our society.
What book influenced you most?
When we were young, the McGanns all read Doris Lessing’s book Shikasta.
It’s a science fiction story about an alien race who try to heal the damage to humanity and Earth one human at a time, by compassion.
Shikasta is the alien name for Earth, and means ‘The wounded one.’ In this day and age, it seems a particularly apt name, as does the need for compassion to heal it.
What was the worst moment of your life?
When my wife Heidi developed a sudden and life-threatening bowel obstruction 19 years ago.
I almost lost her, and my one year old son almost lost his mother.
It tore away all the assumptions of the person I’d been before, and left a far more thankful man in its place.
Which local star in any field should the world outside Ireland know about?
The actor, comedian and writer Tara Flynn. She’s funny, clever, kind, brilliantly talented and highly principled. I love her.
If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
I’d stop my eyebrows growing like the Amazon rainforest. I’m currently thinking about purchasing a gentleman’s grooming machete.
Can you recommend an interesting website?
British Pathé (britishpathe.com.) It’s a treasure house of old video clips from twentieth century Britain, delivered in stiff-lipped style, but a very funny and touching journey into a nation’s evolving idea about itself.
What is the best lesson life has taught you?
There are more chapters in life than you think, and more ways to grow than you suspect. Just keep on growing.
What is your favourite film and why?
The Godfather trilogy. A brilliant study in family and the corruption of morality by power.
What do you believe in?
The better angels of our own nature.
What trait do others criticise you for?
I never shut up!
Where do you live and what are the best and worst things about that place?
I live in rural Hertfordshire in England. It’s a little piece of heaven on earth, but the local deer do like to use my flower garden as a running buffet.
On what occasion is it OK to lie?
To save unnecessary hurt. I’m a believer in the merciful white lie.
What do you consider the greatest work of art?
For fame, audacity and ambition, probably Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. For sheer riot-causing power, The Ballets Russes performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 1913.
What is your ultimate guilty pleasure?
I like to take very long baths. Very long indeed. When I go to the bathroom, my family kiss me goodbye and go off on a short holiday. I finally emerge looking like a prune with dehydration problems.
Who is the love of your life?
My wife Heidi. The single greatest influence on my life, and my best reason for it.
