Call The Midwife star Cliff Parisi has opened up on an ordeal that resulted in him being escorted from the set of the show for his own safety last year.
The 63-year old, who plays Fred Buckle in the BBC drama, required “medical help” after filming during the “horrendous” conditions of Storm Agnes in September. Cliff and his co-stars were recording scenes at West Wittering beach in West Sussex as part of an episode that will air on Sunday (February 4).
The latest installment sees Fred and his Nonnatus House pals head to the coast for a picnic, which left cast members “freezing in flipflops” as Agnes’ 57mph winds battered the South Coast. Four months on, Cliff has recalled the challenging conditions and how he “couldn’t go on” in the chilling temperatures at the time.
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“Everything was going sideways. The wind was unbelievable, it was so cold,” Cliff told the Mirror.
(Image: BBC / Neal Street Productions / Sally Mais)
He continued: “I was wearing a shirt with a hanky on my head. I managed to keep the hanky the whole time – but I got hypothermia in the end. They had to take me off set. I had to warm up, I couldn’t go back on but I’d done most of the filming by that point.”
He added: “But I couldn’t do some scenes that I was meant to be in the background of. It was only a couple of shots. It didn’t really affect the schedule. We managed to make it work.”
(Image: BBC / Neal Street Productions / Domizia Salusest)
Thankfully the veteran actor bounced back relatively quickly after crew members had wrapped him up in a foil blanket. “It was a laugh, but it was difficult to film,” Cliff added. “Things were flying all over the place. Hair and make-up gave up and ran for cover. One of the crews did as well, we had two cameras then we had one. There was sand in everything.”
Elsewhere amongst the cast members, Phyllis Crane star Linda Bassett revealed one of the directors got an eye infection from the sandstorm, laughing: “The first day, Nurse Crane’s wig went straight.”
(Image: BBC / Nealstreet Productions / Laura Radford)
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Annabel Apsion, meanwhile, who plays Fred’s councillor Violet Buckle, said the hair and makeup team were left with a difficult job in their blustery surroundings. “It was a nightmare for continuity but in the end they just gave up and said ‘we can’t do anything’,” she explained.
And Laura Main, who plays Shelagh Turner, compared the “horrendous” weather to filming a war film, adding: “You feel silly moaning, a bit ridiculous, but it got to you. You had to shut down until it was time to bring it out for the camera.”
Call The Midwife airs on BBC One on Sunday at 8pm.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
