Call The Midwife Christmas Special –

show since the beginning,” she says. “At drama school I watched Call The Midwife every week and when I was offered the audition I was just so excited. I never dreamed I’d actually get the part. “I think the amazing thing about the show is that it has all that lovely warmth but at the same time it can tackle hugely impactful topics ... And on prime-time TV that is pretty amazing. I think we handle it all sensitively and there is a lot of research that goes into the scripts which shows in the final product. “At its heart, Call The Midwife is about people and the many different sides of human nature. And it’s one of the few dramas that shows women in a fully, three-dimensional light. And that’s great.” Kirby is even getting used to acting with bawling babies. “There are a lot of fairly new-born babies used on the show and that does cause a complication sometimes because when a baby wants to cry it will cry and when it’s hungry it needs feeding and there is nothing much you can do about it.

“But this show, as you can imagine, is well seasoned with handling babies. So it’s pretty smooth sailing really.”

Also in the Christmas episode, Sister Julienne strives to reunite a family and when Nurse Phyllis Crane’s (Linda Bassett) trusty car breaks down, Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) has to help her through the thick snow.

Also, the romance between Trixie (Helen George) and dentist Christopher (Jack Hawkins) keeps developing and they prepare to set off for a skiing trip. But she declines Phyllis’ offer to lend her fur-lined galoshes because, as she explains, “We are going apres-skiing too and my accessories will be coming under quite a lot of scrutiny.”

Stephen McGann, who plays Dr Patrick Turner, admits that the Christmas storyline made him feel his age.

“We are back in the cold this year – and in a big way,” he says. “It’s weird because I was actually born in ‘The Big Freeze’, I’m that old. And I was delivered by a midwife who arrived on a bike. So, for me, it’s living history.”

McGann, 54, is full of praise for the scripts. But then, he is married to the series writer, Heidi Thomas.

“With any drama it is the writing that is key,” he says. “It’s the stories that viewers will keep coming back for and what Heidi does is genius...

“Every year we have always moved on. One of my personal bug bears is when the show is dismissed with, ‘Oh, it’s nostalgia’.

“But we have tackled huge topics and the 50s and 60s is one of the most tumultuous periods of change in Britain’s history. “This show has never stayed still. It keeps marching on so every year will bring a new

challenge.”

“When I was offered the audition I was just so excited. I never dreamed I’d actually get the part.” – Jennifer Kirby (Valerie)