Sorry, the Midwife’s otherwise engaged!

Helen George ditches her nurse’s uniform for a VERY racy new role (don’t panic, it’s only temporary)

PASS the gas and air! This is Call The Midwife star Helen George as you’ve never seen her before – after ditching her starched apron for PVC, heels and stockings.

The nuns at Nonnatus House are unlikely to approve of their colleague’s choice of outfit for her latest photoshoot.

But George is clearly relishing the chance to flaunt a racy new look ahead of her role as femme fatale Rachel Carew in a new touring production of Daphne Du Maurier’s classic novel My Cousin Rachel.

‘I love it,’ she said, noting that the part could hardly be more different from her character Trixie, right, in the hit BBC drama. ‘It just feels wonderful to look so different.’

The 35-year-old Birminghamborn actress, known to millions worldwide as the glamorous but troubled midwife Trixie Franklin, has made every effort to shed reminders of her TV role for her new stage part.

‘I’m doing my best to set Trixie aside,’ she says. ‘It’s very hard because I’ve played her for nine years and she has become part of me.

‘My biggest issue is my voice, her voice. Trixie is very high, very precise, very proper English.

‘Rachel is an Anglo-Italian who speaks good English, but there is an unmistakable foreign pronunciation of certain words and a different depth, which I’m trying to master.

‘I will also be wearing a black wig and, once that is on, Trixie will physically disappear,’ said Ms George

The actress juggles stage and TV roles, and continued to work while pregnant in 2017 with her first child, daughter Wren. Her partner is Call The Midwife costar Jack Ashton.

She was pilloried for gaining weight by Twitter trolls, but hit back Trixie-style at the time, saying:

‘Sorry if my chins offended you, I chose to feed my baby healthily and not starve myself in a selfish act to look good on TV.’