Excerpt from “Good Witch: Catherine Disher Dishes on All Things Martha Tinsdale”

Carissa Pavlica (Source: tvfanatic )

June 13, 2020

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Anyone who watches Good Witch has recognized the symmetry between Martha and Tom (Paul Miller) in their marriage. If Martha wants to be a better person around Cassie, then it’s Tom who grounds her when her antics could potentially send her from perilously high to crashing to the ground.

Part of their on-screen chemistry could be due to the long relationship shared by the actors. “I love working with Paul. Paul was in theater school when I was; he was in the class below me. This is what, I want to say, 30 years ago now?

“I loved him ever since the movies because he can walk in and just say, “Martha.” And it just puts Martha right back in mind. And she has a very different relationship with Tom, he brings out a very different side of her, and I love that about doing scenes with him.

“It’s a real contrast to what she can get up to with other people, and when she gets all proud about something. It’s a very loving, very natural relationship.”

Tom even agrees with Martha that the Tinsdale on Toast is a great sandwich, something that gave us quite a chuckle during our interview.

When asked what she thought of the sandwich when she first heard of it, Catherine said, laughing, “It’s like, ‘What does that say about me?’ I suppose. I had to assume that it’s just something Martha ordered so much that they named it after her. But I don’t know; it’s not a taste combination that I would automatically think of.”

So while she wonders what kind of cook Martha must be if Tom, too, loves that interesting taste combination, Catherine greatly enjoys the marriage they portray on screen through all their ups and downs.

“There were a couple of episodes in there where I thought, ‘He’s just getting on my last nerve,’ On Martha’s last nerve,” she said in reference Tom’s short-lived decision to run against her for Mayor. “For a while, for a couple of years, we were the only happily married couple in Middleton. So, I’m glad everyone else is pairing up and looking more solid.”

It’s not often we get to see long-term relationships on Hallmark, so this feels special. “There was an episode a few seasons ago, where Tom and Martha have a fight in front of, I think it was Brandon’s character, and his wife, at their house.

“And then they meet them later in the street — I’m actually just summarizing since I can’t remember the exact lines, but it was something like — because [Brandon and his wife] thought they were going to break up; they were fighting.

“And [Martha and Tom] were like, ‘No, not at all, you show us a couple that doesn’t fight, and we’ll show you a couple that gets divorced.’ Something like that. That was fun to see their relationship, the little ups and downs of their behind-the-scenes relationship.”

“People who don’t talk and communicate, and part of communicating is communicating what you don’t like that’s going on. And that could be, I suppose, construed as arguing, or fighting. But people who don’t communicate, that’s worse for a relationship than communicating loudly.”

Catherine believes their mutual support is why they’re a success, especially since those times she could potentially crash back to earth after an idea of hers goes awry, he can help her descend more naturally with a simple. “Martha.”

“That is true, you’re right, and he does it in such a supportive, loving way. That’s what I like about that relationship.

“Like I said, at the beginning of the series, a few of the actors, their characters were rolling their eyes at me, and I guess you could take the lines either way, but I love the fact that Cassie never did, and Tom never did, his character was nothing but loving and supportive to Martha. And tolerant, he’s extremely tolerant.”

When asked if she’s enjoying Good Witch Season 6 and it’s increased focus on the adults and Tom’s more frequent presence, Catherine said, “Oh, yes, for sure. I enjoy it where my kids turn up here and there, but I remember we did in the movies, when Paul, his character Tom was the mayor, and I think he was in movies one through four, and then I think he might have disappeared after movie number four, and I really missed him.

“It wasn’t just showing up at events with no date, Martha showing up with no date, it was that interaction. And at public events where Martha was officiating, and in between takes, I’d call to the crowd and say, ‘Has anyone seen my husband? Please look under your porches and in your sheds; he’s missing.’ Like he was a lost cat that might’ve got stuck in someone’s garden shed.”

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