Call the Midwife’s Cyril to face ‘bereavement’ that gives him ‘closure’ in series 14 – details

Call the Midwife star Zephryn Taitte revealed that his character Cyril Robinson faces bereavement in the new series. While he remained tight-lipped about who the character is mourning, the actor did say that the loss “gives him closure” and makes him reevaluate what’s important in life. 

At the launch of series 14, show creator Heidi Thomas revealed that Cyril experiences a bereavement that “leads him to change his priorities“. 

When asked about the storyline, Zephryn told HELLO! and other press: “The bereavement gives him closure but makes everything feel very real for him and [see] what is important.”

He continued: “He’s a social worker now, so everything is just really visceral and it’s how he wrestles with that, how he finds himself in Poplar and where he goes forward. It’s the making of him as a man.”

In the latest episode, fans watched as Cyril left Poplar for Jamaica to join his wife Lucille, who returned to her homeland in series 12 after suffering a devastating miscarriage. 

Cyril told Rosalind at the end of the episode: “I’m going to Jamaica to visit my wife. It’s too long since I’ve seen her.”

© Olly Courtenay, BBC

At the launch, Zephryn opened up about Cyril’s conflicting emotions.”[Lucille] is in Jamaica and she will be for a while,” he said. “I guess he’s wrestling with [the fact] his love is overseas and he’s a man of the cloth so he doesn’t want any infidelities. He wants to make sure that that situation is wrapped up and he can move on with his life, if he moves on with his life.”

Meanwhile, Natalie Quarry, who plays Rosalind, revealed that “it’s a very slow burn” for the pair due to Cyril’s marriage to Lucille. “There’s a lot of what’s appropriate and what’s allowed,” explained the actress. “I think Rosalind is learning a lot about herself and her emotions and she’s growing up. She’s never been in love before and this is all very new and it has to be slow because they will probably face racism from the community.”

© BBC / Neal Street Productions / Olly Courtney

Natalie continued: “I think she is more naive about the realities of that than he is. As a white woman, she wouldn’t necessarily have seen a lot of that behaviour and that all rolls into it. It’s not the most easy path.”

Call the Midwife airs on Sundays at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.