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Shelagh Turner (née Mannion; previously Sister Bernadette O.S.R.N) is a registered nurse and midwife.

Personality[]

Shelagh is a very kind and gentle soul, with a deep love and care for her work in nursing. As a sister at Nonnatus House, she was quiet and rather shy focusing mainly on her work. However, she has a sharp wit and is not afraid to voice opinions when necessary. She is known to be the most accomplished and excellent midwife at Nonnatus and tutors the younger nurses.

However, it is clear from early on that she is not completely happy in her vocation and she struggles with being caught between the nun she is and the woman she could be.

Ultimately, whether Sister Bernadette or Mrs Shelagh Turner, she is clever, witty, efficient, compassionate and calm under pressure.

Biography[]

Pre-Series[]

Shelagh was born in 1926 in Inverurie, Scotland to a greengrocer and his wife and she grew up in a busy market town and seems to have been an only child. Very little is known about her background prior to the start of the series except in the last episode of Series Two where Sister Evangelina mentions that she entered the Order on July 1st, 1948, and Sister Julienne mentions she came straight from the nurses home at the London. Sister Evangelina also implies that she might have chosen "Bernadette" as her religious name because of the film The Song of Bernadette. It is also revealed that Shelagh's mother died when she was a young child and that she used to steal cigarettes from her father's desk when she was about 14.

Series 1[]

Sister Bernadette

Sister Bernadette in Series 1

Sister Bernadette (as Shelagh was then known) does not develop much as a character during Series One, as she focuses mainly on her work, although in one episode, she does express her hidden desire to be free by looking in the mirror, removing her veil, letting her hair down, and taking off her glasses, on more than one occasion she walks in on the nurses when they are having fun and even joined in with them when they were spying on Jenny who was phoned by her then boyfriend Jimmy Wilson, Jenny is vexed when she finds them and says to her, Trixie and Cynthia "You are all terrible spies, especially you, Sister Bernadette!" To which Sister Bernadette awkwardly replies "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about!", she also encourages them to go to a dance.

Series 2[]

During the course of Series Two, Sister Bernadette begins to have doubts about whether the convent is her true calling. A lot of her scenes are between her and Dr Patrick Turner, and she struggles with her growing romantic feelings for him. Sensing Sister Bernadette's doubts and worries of her position with the Order, Sister Julienne frequently councils and consoles her, never once suggesting she is going through a phase that will wane with time.

When, during a tuberculosis epidemic, a young girl refuses to have an X-Ray in the mobile screening unit, Sister Bernadette has one herself to show the girl there is nothing to it. Unfortunately, Sister Bernadette's scan reveals she has tuberculosis and she is confined to a sanatorium. She eventually makes a full recovery and makes the difficult decision to leave the Order, reverting to her birth name, Shelagh, and becoming engaged to Patrick. Sister Julienne is heartbroken to see her leave but lets her go without resentment.

For some time afterwards Shelagh goes to great lengths to avoid the Sisters, wondering what they would make of her for leaving them, but tragedy strikes when Timothy is struck down by polio and hospitalised, forcing the postponement of the wedding. Feeling helpless, Shelagh goes to the Sisters and is comforted by Sister Julienne who assures her that if her marriage is meant to take place, it will. This eases Shelagh's guilt as she knows that the Sisters were never frustrated or angry in the first place. Timothy pulls through his illness, but polio has damaged his legs and he has to wear braces. Timothy wears the braces for several months, but soon he is strong enough to walk without them. In time, he starts to call Shelagh "Mum", which pleases her greatly. She is now ready to begin her new life.

Series 3[]

In Series Three, Shelagh and Patrick try for a baby without success and Shelagh is devastated to discover she cannot have children due to scarring on her pelvic organs as a result of tuberculosis. Instead, they plan to adopt a baby, but their plans hit a snag when the adoption agency run a background check on Patrick and discovers he spent time in a military mental institution after serving in the Second World War. This history causes some problems between the couple, as Patrick had never told Shelagh about his depression. Happily, they are later approved for adoption and become parents to a baby girl, whom they name Angela Julienne.

Despite leaving the religious life, Shelagh still remains close to the Sisters. Shelagh temporarily takes over running Nonnatus House after Sister Julienne collapses due to exhaustion and, at Sister Julienne's instruction, engages a new permanent midwife who turns out to be Patsy, who replaces Jenny who has been away on compassionate leave at the time to grieve for her boyfriend Alec.

Series 4[]

In Series Four, Shelagh first becomes a medical secretary in Dr. Turner's surgery and at the clinic. She later resumes duty as a nurse after Patrick falls ill and the number of patients becomes too high. She also calls on her past experience as a midwife when Sister Monica Joan brings an expectant mother who is in labour to the surgery and delivers a baby girl.

Series 5[]

In Series Five, Shelagh and Patrick are baffled when several babies are born with severe deformities. After a stressful working period, they take Timothy and Angela on holiday, leaving Patrick's patients in the care of a locum. Unfortunately, the locum is careless in his treatment and gives bad advice to a mother over the phone about how to help her daughter who is in labour, ultimately putting the girl's life in danger and forcing the Turners to rush back so Patrick can clean up the mess.

In the Series Five finale, Shelagh takes a call from Sister Julienne with the devastating news about the death of Sister Evangelina, but there is more bad news to come as the Turners learn that the drug Distaval has been withdrawn after a link is established between one of the ingredients, Thalidomide, and the numerous babies being born deformed. Patrick, who has prescribed the drug to dozens of women, is left to grapple with his own guilt while trying to track down the patients he has prescribed the drug to.

Series 6[]

In the 2016 Christmas Special, Patrick and Shelagh accompany a party from Nonnatus House to South Africa to rescue a struggling mission hospital from closure. Patrick is still guilt-ridden over the Thalidomide scandal, and is even more despondent when a boy named Abel brings his polio-stricken brother Matthias to be vaccinated against the disease; Patrick has to tell Abel the vaccine won't help Matthias since he's already had the disease. Then, when the only doctor at the mission hospital, Dr Myra Fitzsimmons, falls ill and convinces herself she has liver cancer, she won't allow Patrick to examine her, but Shelagh manages to persuade her. Shelagh also rings Nonnatus House and asks Sister Monica Joan to go to their flat and look in one of the cupboards for her. At the end of the episode, Shelagh and Patrick give Matthias Timothy's old leg braces to help him walk.

At the end of the first episode of Series Six, despite previously being told she couldn't have children, Shelagh reveals she is pregnant. However, later in the series she starts bleeding and is admitted to the hospital, terrified she might miscarry. While in hospital, Shelagh meets Gloria Venables, another expectant mother on bedrest for the same reason as Shelagh. Gloria, who is six-months pregnant, tells Shelagh she's lost three babies before, and this is the furthest she's ever gotten. Sadly, Gloria goes into premature labour and loses her baby. Before leaving the hospital, Gloria tells Shelagh "I've got this idea in my head that next year, or the year after, it'll be a lovely sunny day, and I'll be down Chrisp Street Market, pushing a pram. And somewhere near the flower stall, I'll look up and I'll see you pushing a pram. And we'll smile, and we'll pass the time of day". Patrick then arrives to listen to the babies heartbeat. After a few moments, he hears a faint thumping sound, and allows Shelagh to listen, and she's relieved to find the baby is still alive.

In the final episode of Series Six, Shelagh picks Sister Julienne to be her midwife. She had previously ordered Patrick to remain out of the room, believing that he would not be able to separate being a doctor from being her husband. Patrick respects her choice, but he anxiously waits outside the house in his car when Shelagh starts labour until his anxiety finally drives him back into the house. He waits outside the room, listening while Shelagh struggles to cope with the pain of a delivery that is more difficult than normal. She cries and tells Sister Julienne, "I can't believe I used to dream of this! It's like a nightmare!". Sister Julienne soothes her and has her sing to focus on something besides the pain; Patrick hears through the door and sings with her.

Moved, Shelagh tells the Sister she's ready for Patrick to come in now. Patrick sits behind her and supports Shelagh as she starts to push. When the baby's head is born, she reaches down to feel its head. Shelagh gives birth to a baby boy, much to her and Patrick's joy.

It was later revealed in an interview that her son is called Edward Patrick Turner, also known as Teddy.

Series 7[]

Patrick and Shelagh decided to get an au pair to look after Angela and Teddy. She is a Hungarian girl named Magdalena but is commonly known as Magda. However, when Magda discovers she is pregnant, she steals some ergometrine from Nonnatus House to try and induce an abortion, but as a result, she puts her own life in danger. Magda survives, and decides to leave the Turner house to go study to be a nurse in Paris.

Series 8[]

in the Christmas Special 2018 the Turners hire a new secretary Miss Higgins. Just as all seems set in motion for the holidays Shelagh is called back to the Mother House by Sister Julienne. Mother Jesu Emmanuel, the Mother Superior of the Order, is terminally ill, and Sister Julienne needs Shelagh's help to organise Mother Jesu's office which has been left in complete disarray. When there, Shelagh looks at a framed photo of herself as Sister Bernadette with Sister Julienne, Sister Monica Joan, and Sister Evangelina, and comments that she hardly recognises herself, adding "It's as though that woman was erased as completely as the old Nonnatus House. Not a window or a wall left stand". She also comforts Sister Julienne who is afraid that she will be voted in as the new Mother Superior. Fortunately, much to Sister Julienne's relief, Sister Mildred is elected instead. When Patrick arrives at the Mother House she talks to him and they agree to foster a young Chinese orphan called May whose planned adoptive family fell through when the father is diagnosed with Tuberculosis.

At the start of series 8 the Turners and May become increasingly attached to each other with Angela asking if she can tell people at school that May is her sister, the family talk about how some people foster children for years. However the Turners get the news that May's planned father is getting over his illness and the gears begin moving to get May's official adoption in motion. The two adults tell the four children who don't take the news well particularly Timothy who has come to view May as his sister, he is also worried how Angela would take it but Shelagh assures him that children are resilient. The woman in charge of the transition is confident that May will be happy enough just being handed over with no transition period. When the day comes Shelagh decides to look to the future and starts planning an event called the ballroom of hope to raise money for an incubator at the maternity home. Just as everything is getting back to normal the Turners get news that the father had a TB relapse and they rush to get May from the Mother House. After that it becomes clear that Shelagh has four children now.

Series 9[]

The Nonnatus House team are sent to the Outer Hebrides in the 2019 Christmas special. Despite being Scottish herself Shelagh isn't big on the idea. Despite this Patrick falls in love with the place and wants to move their family and their general practice there, Shelagh is forced to be the sensible one and puts an end to the discussion and by the end Patrick agrees it was a bad idea. They return to Poplar in time for Christmas.

The Turner family expands further with rabbits, and then again when the rabbits give birth to baby rabbits. Meanwhile Timothy has headed off to boarding school and phones the family regularly. Shelagh misses him dreadfully and still washes his grammar school uniform until it finds a new home with a diphtheria survivor boy called Terry. Shelagh is worried that Patrick's work is consuming him leaving him with little time to do anything with his family. The children arrange for them to go and see the newly released The Sound of Music at the cinema, and after seeing it, they talk about how much of the film is similar to their story. The two decide to take on new doctor Kevin McNulty to help out at the surgery. Just as all seems set fair with an adoption hearing planned for May, the Turners get word that May's mother Esther Tang is alive and well and wishes to see her daughter. The two agree to allow May and Esther to meet but May is scared of Esther and no longer understands Chinese. This devastates Esther but the two agree that May is their priority. When Esther announces her intent to take May back to Hong Kong, the Turners turn to Sister Julienne, who convinces Esther to allow Patrick and Shelagh to be her guardians but not her legal parents, something they accept. Though not ideal, it means they get to have all four of their children together with them as a family.

Series 10[]

After an ambulance team forgets a mother's notes, Shelagh and Teddy go to the hospital where she is reunited with Gloria Venables, the woman she was with when she nearly suffered a miscarriage. Gloria explains that she lost three more babies after they parted ways, now marking seven failed pregnancies, but on her eighth pregnancy she has finally managed to carry to term. Due to the insensitivities of the obstetrician Mr. Kenley, Gloria and her husband, Tony, transfer to Patrick and Shelagh's practice. Shelagh then takes the unprepared Gloria out to buy baby supplies, Gloria having stopped preparing after her second pregnancy. When her time comes Shelagh and Sister Frances help her through her labour, and Shelagh is then able to convince Gloria to talk about all her lost babies who she tried to bottle up though her head was always full of them, even giving them names: Brian, David, Peter, Ruth, Rebecca, John and Anthony. Gloria gives birth to a baby girl who she names Rachel Rose and asks Shelagh to cut the cord. Gloria is in disbelief at finally being a mother but Shelagh assures her she had been a mother for a long time. While all this was happening Shelagh also decided to not have Christmas dinner at Nonnatus House for as she put it 'new times sake'. But after they get a turkey with its head and feathers, they decide to go to Nonnatus House's traditional celebration after all.

In S10 E01, Sister Julienne announces that Nonnatus House will be going into private practice. Patrick is furious but Shelagh can see that it might be the only way for Nonnatus to carry on with the increased rent and decreased budget. With no Nonnatus, their maternity home couldn't continue. However, when the private clinic Sister Julienne was corresponding with turns out to be doing illegal abortions, it puts an end to that hope. By S10 E03, with Shelagh and Patrick continuing to worry about the ticking clock put on the order, Shelagh is sent to the hospital to carry out pupil midwife assessments, and it is there that she gets the idea for Nonnatus House to start a training scheme, taking on pupil midwives and charging for bed and board. This scheme would secure the future of Nonnatus and Sister Julienne is happy to adopt the proposal. Despite a rocky start, and the district losing a patient at the hands of Pupil midwife Nancy Corrigan, the proposal works well. Meanwhile, Timothy returns home from the boarding school and is hoping to get in medical school. Shelagh is very happy to have all four children under the same roof again but is worried about Timothy not getting into medical school and if he does the things he will see as a doctor.

In S10 E05 a teenage mother Jeanette Owen is booked into the maternity home after developing Preeclampsia. Her baby is being given up for adoption and Jeanette is worried about that. Shelagh tells her about Angela and May's birth mothers and how she always revered them and how she spends every moment of the day making sure they did the right thing. During the delivery, Shelagh also lectures Nancy Corrigan on the difference between a midwife's compassion and her own personal passion. Shelagh delivers a baby boy who is then given up for adoption. The Turner family get the news that Timothy will be going to medical school at Edinburgh University, Shelagh is rather apprehensive at the thought of the first one leaving the nest. As she tries to think of one last thing she can do for him, Patrick gives her the idea of sewing up his doctors coat just like she did years ago with Patrick's coat button.

Series 11[]

By the 2021 Christmas special, May has fully settled into her life in Poplar, but Shelagh still can't help but feel bad that they know so little of May's past life in Hong Kong and how she couldn't be there for her. Patrick tells her she is a wonderful mother for May in the present and that's what matters. On Christmas day Patrick and Shelagh are called to the maternity home to help care for a newborn baby who from its mother ended up with a heroin addiction. Mother Mildred tells them that May was a similar case back in Hong Kong, so Shelagh offers to be the one to wean the baby off from the heroin in order to give the baby a future and fill that hole Shelagh feels is in her past.

In series 11, Shelagh is asked by Sister Julienne who is suffering from Labyrinthitis (an infection of the inner ear) to plan to centenary celebrations for the orders 100th anniversary in Poplar. Sister Hilda who was eager to plan the celebrations is mildly resentful as being passed over for “Sister Bernadette, ex-nun” but accepts it. When she goes to make her plans, it is revealed she kept the “please will you marry my Dad?” note from Timothy. Sister Julienne is pleased with the plans she came up with and Shelagh arranges a song as a gift to the order making for a wonderful celebration. In S11 E05 Timothy returns to Poplar from medical school. When playing in the playground, May inures her foot badly, which inspires Shelagh to stand up to the dangers of the old playground. She and Violet Buckle agree to organise a jamboree jumble sale to raise money for new playground equipment. Shelagh gets rather overly zealous about the playground and she reveals she is really just afraid that once Esther, May's mother back in Hong Kong, finds out about her daughter's injury, she will use it as a weapon against the Turners. Patrick reaffirms that she is a wonderful mother to their four children and that May will get scrapes, but they can kiss them better.

In S11 E06 Shelagh and Lucille Robinson, who has just miscarried her first baby, begin their shift at the maternity home. Shelagh notices that being around newborns may be difficult for Lucille, and tries to tell her about her nearly losing Teddy, but it comes to nothing. She speaks to Sister Julienne who agrees to move her to district work for as long as is needed. Soon after, Shelagh faces perhaps the most difficult delivery of her career, a very young woman who calls herself Clover but is actually named Susie is in labour, and when the baby is delivered it has a condition called gastroschisis where its intestines are on the outside of the body - a condition Shelagh says she had never yet seen in all her years as a midwife. While in the moment she seemed in control, it was only after realised she had never been more frightened during a delivery all her life.

Shelagh was meant to be attending a midwifery conference in Chelmsford with Patrick and Sister Julienne, but she pulled out allowing the ticket to go to Nancy Corrigan. Not long before, Timothy returns from medical school with glandular fever and is put on bed rest, something he won’t comply with and just keeps on working himself to the bone. Patrick tries to talk to him about it but Timothy rather harshly shouts at his father which makes Shelagh angry. She speaks to Timothy and he agrees to apologize, but the train she was supposed to be on herself derails and causes an explosion around Nonnatus House. Nancy Corrigan gets off the train as she was in the toilet at the time but the other two were inside in perilous circumstances. Timothy is guilt ridden but Shelagh is of no help to him and leaves her children to go to the chapel at Nonnatus House. She is in floods of tears at the thought of losing the man she loves more than anything as well as the woman who was as good as a mother to her all her life. Cyril persuades Shelagh to help out with the flood of injured people at Nonnatus house. Unbeknownst to her, her eldest son goes on a mission undercover as a doctor and finds Patrick and Sister Julienne alive but one with a head injury and another with symptoms of a heart attack. Patrick is safely delivered to the hospital and put on the road to recovery. Sister Julienne's future is less certain, as she fears she will be put out of action for the rest of her reduced life; but thankfully the so called heart attack turned out to be just shock. Thus Shelagh rejoices that the two people she loves most aside from her four children will both make full recoveries.

Series 12[]

In the 2022 Christmas special Shelagh is reunited with Rhoda Mullucks who is expecting her fourth child. Both Shelagh and especially Patrick feel guilt over the thalidomide taking Susan’s arms and legs, when Rhoda goes into labour, Shelagh is her midwife and delivers a baby boy who Rhoda decides to name Patrick after Dr Turner. Later, Fred Buckle puts on talent show Poplartunity Knocks and Angela, May, and Teddy along with Susan sing Frosty the Snowman dressed as snowmen in costumes Shelagh made.

In S12 E01, a new nun Sister Veronica arrives at Nonnatus House to work as a health visitor. Shelagh and Sister Veronica knew each other when Shelagh was still a nun and this makes Shelagh feel awkward. She admits to Patrick that she always feels awkward around nuns who knew her as Sister Bernadette. Shelagh thinks that the nuns think she should regret leaving the order but she doesn’t. Later, in the Nonnatus kitchen, Sister Veronica meets May who she knew in Hong Kong and Shelagh thanks her for looking after her daughter when she couldn’t. In S12 E03 Shelagh delivers a boy who turns out to have haemophilia, his mother Lorna is stunned to find that her father died of haemophilia and her mother never told her of the disease that runs in their family and cuts her out. Shelagh and Patrick talk and the case reminds them of when they were trying to adopt Angela and the secret of the war breakdown caused a rift with them, but it doesn’t even matter to them anymore. Lorna comes to forgive her mother and the family becomes happy ad determined to enjoy every moment they can have together.

Timothy returns home from medical school and begins helping out in the clinic. Shelagh and Patrick are called in to assist with the undiagnosed twin case of Vinta Khatri. After two baby girls are delivered, the maternity home is thrown into chaos; the babies are all diagnosed with gastroenteritis, otherwise known as stomach flu. This outbreak puts the maternity home into quarantine, with Shelagh, Patrick, Timothy, Nurse Trixie Franklin staying for the duration to care for the new-borns and the sick mothers. Sister Monica Joan decides to join them against Shelagh’s warnings, however it proved to be a good thing to have another pair of hands as Shelagh caught the infection herself. When she was sent home, she passed the infection onto the children. Patrick taking matters on the serious outbreak into his own hands doesn’t please the council, however, and may prove to be part of a bigger problem later. After the outbreak was over, Shelagh welcomed Patrick and Timothy home and they were last seen in their back garden playing by the paddling pool. In S12 E05 Shelagh is feeling very overworked at home doing things like planning May’s cowboys and Indians themed party, to top it off the Turners rabbit Genevieve dies. Shelagh bursts into the surgery convinced she is pregnant with a baby she doesn’t feel she can have, Patrick sends off a pregnancy test but Shelagh walked downstairs and tells him her period came and she suspected it was the beginning of the menopause for her. At the end, May has her party and Patrick comes in with a new rabbit as a present.

The Turner family build a rapport with newly married couple Lizzie and Arnold Yu, Arnold originating from Hong Kong like May and the pair bring some food from Arnolds uncles takeaway. Unfortunately while Shelagh, Patrick and Timothy were on their way to the wedding of her colleague Trixie Franklin's wedding Lizzie and Arnold on the way to the maternity home are involved in a car accident. Arnold survives but Lizzie is dead instantly, Shelagh is devastated but they find her baby is still alive, both of them are faced with perhaps the biggest trial of their medical careers and must perform a caesarean section on Lizzies body on an open road to save the baby, Shelagh talks to Lizzie's body comfortingly and tells her that the baby is a girl and looks like Arnold as she hoped it would. After that the three change and attend the wedding of the new Sir Matthew and Lady Aylward, they carry on, as Lizzie once said "go where love is, because that is where life is".

Series 13[]

Coming soon...

Relationships[]

Family[]

Patrick Turner (Husband)

Timothy Turner (Step-Son)

Angela Turner (Adopted Daughter)

May Tang (Foster Daughter)

Teddy Turner (Son)

Sister Julienne[]

From the start, Shelagh and Sister Jullienne were very close. She reminded her that she had to sleep in the first-ever episode, later entrusting to the running of Nonnatus House to her on a multitude of occasions. And, when she was struggling with her calling, Sister Julienne could often be seen consoling her, never once suggesting it would fade with time. During her stay at the sanatorium, she would regularly visit, accepting her departure from religious life with a heavy heart, but without a grudge. Shelagh avoided her former sisters in Christ until Timothy was taken poorly with polio, where, in desperation, she returned to them. She tried to insist that Sister Julienne walk her down the aisle, but was persuaded that she was her own woman. When it was found out that Shelagh couldn’t have a baby, Sister Julienne once more consoled her. She never stopped praying. And when the miracle occurred, she only first confided in the sister, who was chosen to be her Midwife. They were also supported in Series 9 when their newly adopted daughter‘s biological mother turned up in London, where Sister Julienne intervened and persuaded Miss Tang that her daughter was safe and well.

Quotes[]

"I'm just back from Mrs Driscoll, baby's turned, no longer breach.." (Series 1 Episode 1, first line)

“I know you so little but I couldn’t be more certain...” (Series 2 Episode 8)

“There were rules in religious life. But no-one ever told me what the rules were afterwards. I think perhaps I have to write my own.” (Xmas special 2013)

”I can’t believe I used to dream of this, it’s like a nightmare!” (Series 6 Episode 8)

”Is it self indulgent to say I hardly recognise myself?“ (Xmas special 2018)

"A postulant giving it all up for the man she loves and will always love" (Series 9 Episode 5, after watching the sound of music)

Trivia[]

  • Shelagh is the only character to appear in every single episode, as of series 12, episode 3 in which Sister Julienne did not appear up until the pre-credits preview of series 12, episode 4. This means that Shelagh has appeared in 100 episodes (as of 12.4) and Sister Julienne has appeared in 99.

Appearance[]

As a Nun, Sister Bernadette was small and slight and was known to wear the typical nun’s habit of Saint Raymond Nonnatus, which consisted of a white cap and shoulder length veil, navy scapula and robe with a white neckerchief and wooden crucifix hanging from her neck, she originally wore round black glasses which she has to change as they are affecting her work and is given a new pair of pink horn-rimmed glasses with an upswept frame.

Later after leaving the order Shelagh no longer has to wear her habit and aside from her nurse’s uniform, she now wears colourful clothes in addition to her glasses. She has long, thick light brown hair which is often done up efficiently in a beehive, she also has piercing blue eyes and occasionally wears lightly coloured mascara.

Gallery[]

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