Pangs of jealousy:
Coro Street’s Carla is having second thoughts about Peter Barlow.
War, unlike that of Julienne,” she says. “She also has to conform to the rules and behaviour of being a nun, but my world was that of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, pop-art and those wonderful little mini-skirts. I used to get most of my clothes in C&A. Walking down the King’s Road in London was terribly exciting. The 60s left a big impression on me.
“I must admit I get quite envious during filming Call The Midwife when I see Helen George, as Trixie, wearing these gorgeous 60s dresses and I’m stuck in a nun’s habit.”
Newcomers Fenella Woolgar and Ella Bruccoleri were delighted to be joining such an established and much-loved show.
“I was over the moon but my sister-in-law was even more excited,” says Woolgar. “She’s addicted to Call The Midwife and after she heard that I had joined she asked me lots of questions about what was happening in the new series but I took the vow of silence and didn’t tell her anything.
“Interestingly, I am Catholic and I had a great aunt who was a nun who was called Sister Mary Hilda and now I am playing Sister Hilda.”
Like Woolgar, Ella Bruccoleri, a newcomer to acting, was also struck by a coincidental personal connection to the name of her character.
“I was raised as a Catholic and my confirmation name was St Frances,” she says. “Getting the role was crazy for me because it’s quite early on in my career. I was sitting at home, waiting for the call about whether or not I had got it and when I was told that I had, it felt amazing.” Woolgar, 49, believes that the show has struck such a chord with viewers around the world, because of the central element of babies. “New life is such an amazing thing, isn’t it? I mean I cry whenever I see it. It’s so hopeful and giving birth is an experience that a lot of us go through. And it’s a very warm programme. “I’m rarely cast in contemporary dramas or even, let’s face it, the 21st century, so I have got to know quite a lot about the 40s and 50s. That started when I did Vera Drake with Mike Leigh years ago. “I did so much research about the war around that time, that I feel that I will have known quite a lot about Sister Hilda’s experience being in the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) during the war. “As part of our research for Call The Midwife, we met some real nuns. They didn’t watch the show because they don’t have a television but one of them told me that her sister in New Zealand was desperate for anything to do with Call The Midwife so we signed some photos to be sent to her.”