'Call the Midwife' fans stressed and tearful over tragic series finale as Stephen McGann shares personal trauma

Call the Midwife ended series 11 with viewers on the edge of their seats for a tense wait to discover whether two favourite characters would survive a train crash.

The two-parter disaster storyline began last Sunday with the crash and concluded last night on BBC One, revealing who survived, who died, and the fact that the train driver had a brain haemorrhage which caused the crash.

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Stephen McGann plays Dr Turner in the period drama, one of the popular characters who fans were worried would be killed off in the crash, and shared his own personal brushes with tragedy as the episode went out.

He tweeted: "Some personal context to tonight's #CallTheMidwife ep. I've been in a deadly disaster myself. It's cruel, but ordinary in its cruel lottery. Absolutely part of life. Also, my mum lost twins like Carol. My brothers. They were placed in a coffin with a stranger. xx"

McGann was referring to another storyline in the emotion-filled episode which saw a pregnant woman lose her twin babies.

It was a tough watch for many fans, with one person tweeting: "My emotions are all over the place and feel like I’ve run a marathon after watching call the midwife!"

Another viewer shared a photo of nail marks in her hand and wrote: "Can you tell call the midwife is tense tonight."

Someone else tweeted: "A wonderful series finale of Call The Midwife! Though they’d better not do a two-parter again - I was a bag of nerves...!"

Another fan added: "I didn’t breath for most of that! And if I did it was because I was crying!"

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Viewers had been stressed about the prospect of Dr Turner and Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) dying since last week after seeing them caught up in the train crash.

Ahead of the episode, one fan tweeted: "I am warning everyone now. If Dr Turner dies I will unleash absolute carnage on the world. I will not be able to handle it."

Someone else added: "Nope. Dr Turner can't die. He and Tim have to go into practice together, and he has to grow old with Shelagh telling him off about sneaking a crafty pie. And what will Poplar do without the best GP in London?"

Another viewer wrote: "If dr turner or sister julienne die do we get a day off work for national mourning?"

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Luckily, both characters survived - although Lionel Corbett (Marc Elliott) and Dorothy Carnie (Stephanie Jacob) were not so lucky.

One viewer tweeted: "Thank the drama gods! Sister Julienne & Dr Turner are still alive ! As Sister Monica Joan would say “ my heart is full “! What a wonderful programme this is."

Fans were also delighted to hear that the hit drama has been confirmed for a return, as the show's official account tweeted: "Thank you all for watching Series 11. We'll be back!! #CallTheMidwife will return with a new Christmas Special and Series 12 in 2023! xxx"

One fan wrote: "Is it December yet?? Need the Christmas special already I don't want there to be no more #CallTheMidwife until December."

Someone else commented: "The fact that #CallTheMidwife is still this superb & popular after 11 series’ is an incredible feat and says a lot about Heidi Thomas’ brilliance. No other show on TV makes you experience so many emotions in every single episode. What a series finale."

Watch: Jennifer Kirby describes how Call the Midwife shoots birth scenes