SCOT LAURA ON
WHATDOTHEY THINKOFTHE SHOWSOFAR?
HELEN GEORGE
(Nurse Trixie Franklin) HELEN thought Call the Midwife would only last one series but is now celebrating playing the role for almost a decade.
The 36-year-old, from Birmingham, said: “We started out thinking it would just be a small show, lasting just six episodes yet here we are a decade later. It means a lot that people are still watching.
“Over lockdown, people were going back to the first series and watching it all from the start on the iPlayer. That’s a lot of episodes.
“But it’s really great that people still want us to be there.”
Bubbly blonde Trixie developed a drink problem and her battle with the bottle is back for the 10th series.
JENNY AGUTTER (Sister Julienne)
THE veteran star, 68, said: “Call the Midwife is groundbreaking because it deals with problems head-on without stepping back from them.
“It doesn’t try to excuse them or make them OK or give characters a happy ending.
“I’m so proud to have been a part of this show over the last decade.”
STEPHEN McGANN
(Dr Patrick Turner) STEPHEN, 58, is married to the series’s writer and producer Heidi Thomas.
He said: “We’ve given our lives and our souls to this job for almost 10 years so we need to mark it in some way, as it’s special. How will we do that? I’d love to throw a party. I haven’t fully thought how I’m going to do it, but it would be so nice.”
CLIFF PARISI
(Fred Buckle, handyman of Nonnatus House) Cliff, 60, said: “I’m a West Ham fan so it’s great to have the 1966 World Cup in this series. West Ham won it for England.
“We had nine players in the squad – including Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters – so I’m very proud to say it was a West Ham World Cup. It’s a shame they can’t be portrayed in the show.”
CALL the Midwife star Laura Main has undergone more changes than most since the series began in 2012. The Aberdeen actress, 40, was one of the original cast members and joined to play a nun, Sister Bernadette.
But she is now Shelagh Turner – a mother of four who is married to a doctor. Quite the turn of events.
Laura is thrilled that the period drama, set in London’s east end, has become one of the UK’s most-loved TV series and is celebrating it’s 10th series. And she hopes it will go on forever. Laura said: “I can’t quite believe that it’s been 10 series. It’s just amazing.
“I still absolutely love being part of Call the Midwife. It’s still a complete joy to come to work and the scripts are still wonderful.
“We’re going forward each year. There are always new things to tackle and new issues to discuss. It’s changing all the time. The fashions change, the look changes, so it doesn’t feel old.
“It still feels really, really fresh. Shelagh is an example of how people’s lives can change. She’s gone from being a nun to being married with four children.
“I just feel really, really lucky. I just love it. Long may it continue. I don’t want it to end.”
It certainly won’t be ending anytime soon with the BBC announcing two more series after the 11th, which was due to begin filming soon. It means a 12th and 13th series will take the show to at least 2024 and into the 70s in the storyline.
Based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth and created and written by Heidi Thomas, the first series was set in early 1957 and the new series will begin in 1966.
The show has shone a light on some of the darkest recesses of recent medical history – the legacy of thalidomide, the impact of illegal abortions, the treatment of gay people at a time when homosexuality was still illegal.
It has also highlighted medical traumas such as stillbirth, sepsis, disability, miscarriage, STDs, cancer, cystic fibrosis, female genital mutilation and sickle cell.
Following the nuns at Nonnatus House who work in midwifery and nursing, the new series will include private care, abortion, nuclear testing on war veterans and the 1966 football World Cup.
Laura has been at the forefront of many of the main storylines.
Fans were invested in Sister Bernadette’s doubts about being a nun which saw her, in series two, leaving the order and becoming engaged to Dr Patrick Turner, played by Stephen McGann. She later become a nurse while raising step-son Timothy, birth son Edward and two adopted daughters, Angela and May.
Her costume has changed, too, from having to wear a wimple as a nun to a wedding dress specially made by the show’s costume designer Ralph