Mrs Tembe

Winifred Tembe (known as Mrs. Tembe) is a fictional character from the BBC 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".

Storylines

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 her. She impressed Julia Parsons at her interview and instantly got the job. During the interview it was revealed that she moved to London towards the end of 2000, with her husband, but Mr. Tembe died whilst in the United Kingdom. This was later shown to be a lie on her part.

2011—

In 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. 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 unaware of what Mrs Tembe had been enduring for the past weeks. Mrs. Tembe told Heston that she thinks the United Kingdom is somewhere she feels endangered. She then moved back to Botswana, without telling her other colleagues at The Mill.

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. That night, Lauren 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. When they got there they were in shock when they got there and found Lauren's dead body on the floor.

In 2013, Mrs. Tembe began a friendship with the vicar of her parish church, Gordon which blossomed into a romance. It soon fell apart when Mrs. Tembe's former husband Thomas arrived at The Mill, much to the shock of the other doctors who had been led to believe that he was dead. It was revealed that Thomas is in fact gay, and that Mrs. Tembe was the one who "outed" him to their family and friends. They subsequently shunned Thomas and he was forced from the town, prompting a heartbroken Mrs. Tembe's emigration to the UK.

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