Tamzin Outhwaite thanks NHS after boyfriend’s emergency stomach operation

Tamzin Outhwaite
Tamzin and Tom in 2020 (Image credit: @tc_childie/Instagram)

EastEnders and Death in Paradise season 11 star Tamzin Outhwaite has said a big thank you to the NHS for a life-saving operation on her boyfriend Tom Child after he was admitted with terrible stomach pains.

Tamzin tweeted on Sunday: “Good morning all… My bloke went to A and E with bad stomach pains and ended up in theatre having his appendix out. If you fancy a laugh go to his insta @tc_childie .He has never had an op or morphine. He has apparently been cracking up the doctors. #morphinevirgin

See more



Tom, who’s an actor and film-maker and has been Tamzin’s partner for four years, had an emergency appendectomy and while the procedure seemed to go perfectly well, it was his post-operative antics –specifically his efforts to get another dose of morphine – which have provided the hospital staff with a much-needed laugh.

Clearly still feeling the effects of the anaethetic, Tom engaged in a post-op conversation with his doctor, Robel: “That’s a beautiful name [for a] beautiful person. I tell you what would make you even more of a beautiful person, if you were to slip me a bit of that morphine, son.”

The doctor burst out laughing.

Tom continued: “Did you like the butter-up bit? Did you like the buttery biscuit base at the start?”

He then proceeds to relay a conversation with another NHS health worker, Mandy, who appears to have used him as a sounding board for various work-related complaints. Again, the doctor laughed hard and said: “You need to be doing stand-up comedy!”

Watch the exchange on Tom Child’s Instagram page.

Tamzin’s actor friends reacted, including ex Emmerdale star Nicola Stephenson who said: “Good God I love ya Tom. You will literally make fiends ANYWHERE! I’m howling!”

Former Coronation Street star Charlie Condou said: “This made me howl 😂 I love it #mandy #thomas”.

Meanwhile, Tamzin has just returned to our screens, starring as Holly Faircroft in Friday’s episode of Death in Paradise. Playing a golf club owner with a dark side, Holly was not killed off in the episode. Could she be returning?

Tamzin told the Mirror: "She is a good mum and I don’t think she’s a bad human, but she’s got frustrated and bored in her marriage and it’s led her to doing bad things.

“Filming it in the Caribbean was actually like being in paradise. It was beautiful... Myself and the actors who played my family members all just gelled instantly. We had a really great time.”

Sounds like a return appearance would be welcomed.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.