I never give in to tiredness.
Where would you like to be in five years’ time?
Making my way up the medical ladder. Perhaps as a ward sister in a London teaching hospital.
PROFILE
CYNTHIA
Cynthia Miller and Jennifer met on the latter’s first day in Poplar, and a connection evolved that lasted until Cynthia’s death from cancer in 2006. Indeed, the final volume of the Call the Midwife trilogy, Farewell To The East End, carries the dedication, ‘To Cynthia, for a lifetime of friendship’. Her name remained unaltered in the series, at Jennifer’s insistence, and I was intrigued by their special connection, and very respectful of it. However, though Jennifer wanted Cynthia enshrined, as a memorial to the affection they had shared, she would not speak of her in any great detail. Then, on my very last visit to Jennifer, she went to great pains to get out her wedding album in order to show me a photo of her friend. It depicted Cynthia at the end of a row of guests. In a hat and belted coat, she looked shy and slightly out of things. ‘She was always so very unassuming,’ sighed Jennifer, closing the album.
When I settled down to work on the character of Cynthia, I decided the best approach was to treat her as special, but not unique. The world is full of young Cynthias – shy, quiet girls who feel things deeply, yet can be funny and playful in the company of friends. Weaving the scripts, I inched forward delicately, hoping to balance respect for Cynthia’s memory with the need to write a role that would interest an actor. Somewhere along the way, things must have clicked into place a little, because when Bryony Hannah read the script she wanted the job. ‘I was just really delighted by it. You know when you read a character if it is something you feel you are able to do, and you just hope you are the right person for it,’ she explains.
We cast Bryony without hesitation. Fresh from huge West End success in the play The Children’s Hour, we had no doubts about her talent, or that she could project the goodness and sincerity that Cynthia required.
‘I feel Cynthia is a younger person than me, and a little more naive than I am now. Her profession is totally alien to me but she is very kind and generous. She is giving, yet there is anxiety beneath that sometimes. It makes her a more rounded character.’
In the course of the role, Bryony has become adept at handling newborns. ‘The baby scenes are very humbling – you have a great responsibility, obviously,’ she says. But handling the infants has stirred up deeper feelings. ‘I was broody beforehand. It hasn’t made it worse, but it has compounded it.’
The birth scenes are always very intense, to the point where they can take an actual, physical toll. ‘It is so tense, and you get so involved,’ explains Bryony. The delivery of Winnie Lawson’s mixed-race baby in Series One was a case in point. ‘I got to the end of it all and found I was hardly breathing.
‘With my role I am trying to be as honest as I can, to allow the inner character to seep through. When playing emotional scenes I just want to be able to do the writing justice.’
Bryony first made up her mind to be an actor as a child, after watching black and white movies starring Fred Astaire and John Wayne.
‘Whenever I thought I wanted to be something else, it was only ever because of a film! I thought about chasing tornadoes after seeing Twister. I wanted to be a marine biologist after Free Willy.’
Nevertheless, it took time to see that dream become reality. She worked in pubs in her home town of Portsmouth, and sought roles in fringe theatre before getting into RADA at the fourth attempt. This enforced delay rather pleases her, with hindsight.
‘I don’t think I could have coped at eighteen. Twenty-one, the age I finally went there, is still young. I also looked at the year groups that came before me and I knew I wouldn’t have fitted in.’ As it happened, she attended the school at the same time as Jessica Raine, and with the success of Call the Midwife, their fortunes remain entwined.
At present, Bryony’s life is consumed by work, to the point where even her spare time is spent at the theatre.
‘I am writing a list of exciting things to do before I’m 30,’ she confides. ‘But, with the exception of jet skiing it’s looking woefully empty!’
One suspects that the shadowy, real-life Cynthia might have rather approved …
Q&A
What is your favourite outfit?
My floral dressing gown. My grandmother made it for me from a bedspread, not long after the War.
Where do you go on holiday?
I’m quite keen on Youth Hostelling, and last year I took my bike and cycled all over Derbyshire.
Who is your dream date and where would you go?
I think I’d be too nervous to enjoy an actual date, unless it was with someone I’d known for a long time. I’d quite like a penfriend – maybe someone living in America or Australia.
What is your favourite record and film?
I love the song ‘I’m Always Chasing Rainbows’ – it’s been recorded so many times, but I never mind who’s singing it. And I adored Walt Disney’s Lady and the Tramp.
What is your most treasured memory?
As a student nurse, I looked after a little boy who was desperately ill with polio. He was in an iron lung to begin with, but eventually walked out of the hospital under his own steam. As he left, he turned round and said, ‘Thank you’.
Your favourite meal?
Roast chicken, with all the trimmings. And rhubarb fool. I love rhubarb.
What do you do in your spare time?
Chummy’s been teaching me how to use the sewing machine. And I help out with Girls’ Brigade.
What’s your secret vice?
Emergency Ward 10. I sometimes time my housecalls so that when it’s on I’ll be at a house with a television set. And then I look at Dr Dawson over the patient’s shoulder.
And your most shining virtue?
I don’t think I have one. But I try to be kind.
Where would you like to be in five years’ time?
In the right place. And I’m not sure where that is yet.
(© John Rogers)
PROFILE
CHUMMY