Mrs Tembe

Winifred Tembe (known as Mrs. Tembe) is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera Doctors, played by Lorna Laidlaw. She made her first on-screen appearance 5 January 2011. She was introduced only as "Mrs. Tembe" but later revealed her first name to be Winifred at the Campus Surgery. However, as yet, she does not use this familiar form and she prefers to be called "Mrs Tembe". This is the form that appeared in the cast list.

She returned to Botswana for a holiday in August 2011, after suffering racial attacks and her character was always going to return. Mrs Tembe will arrive back in Letherbridge in September 2011. ^[1]

Character Background

Mrs. Tembe is a proud native of Botswana with deep Christian values. She is close friends with her neighbour, Maureen Bright, who attends Church with Mrs. Tembe. Mrs. Tembe impressed Julia Parsons at her interview and instantly got the job, in the interview it was revealed that she moved to London towards the end of 2000, with her husband, but Mr. Tembe died whilst in England.

Storylines

Racial Attacks

In the summer of 2011, Mrs Tembe suffered racist bullying from her neighbour Trevor Waterhouse (Laurence Saunders). Waterhouse, who is a single father struggling to cope was 'brain washed' by the British Pride Party and blamed Mrs Tembe for his unemployment and failings as a father. However, Mrs Tembe had befriended Trevor's son, Cameron (Charlie Kenyon), which Trevor was not happy about at all. Trevor turned neighbours against Mrs Tembe, blaming her for the food poisoning Cameron had from jam, saying it was her African food.

After many weeks of this racism Mrs Tembe confronted Trevor and then upset, she was comforted by colleague, Dr Heston Carter, who, like all the staff at the Mill, were un-aware of what Mrs Tembe had been enduring for the past weeks. Mrs Tembe told Dr Carter that she thinks England is no longer somewhere she feels safe. She then moved back to Botswana, without telling her colleagues at the Mill.

Return to The Mill & feud with Lauren Porter

Mrs Tembe returned to The Mill in September 2011. She had recovered from the racial attacks and felt like she was ready to start again. She was welcomed back by the staff who were all very pleased to see her, except for temporary receptionist Lauren Porter, who was now out of a job. She went out of her way to make Mrs Tembe's life very miserable and upset her. They had a huge argument in the staff room at the end of the day after Mrs Tembe had learned about Lauren's schemes. In the heat of the moment Mrs Tembe told Lauren that she "wished her dead" and stormed off. However, that night Lauren Poter was murdered.

Due to their unprofessional manner in the staffroom, Mrs Tembe and Lauren both had to attend a meeting with Julia so they could sort it out, however Lauren did not show. Nobody had realised that she was dead so staff assumed she was just avoiding work rather than facing Julia herself. Eventually guilt got the better of Mrs Tembe and asked Julia if they could visit Lauren just to make sure she was alright as nobody had heard from Lauren in days. However, when they got there they were in shock when they got there and found Lauren's dead body on the floor.

References

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