Call for the Midwife movie

THE CAST of Callthe Midwife want the BBC hit turned into a film to rival Downton Abbey.

The show, starring the nuns of Nonnatus House, has been hugely popular.

The first series pulled in audiences of more than 10 million and it is still averaging more than nine million in its eighth season this year.

A highly anticipated Christmas special of the period drama will be set on the Outer Hebrides.

Now two of the leading actresses Jenny Agutter (Sister Julienne) and Judy Parfitt (Sister Monica) say the show should get the Hollywood treatment, pointing out it has been around longer than Downton.

A film version of the ITV show released in September made more than £5million in its first weekend in the UK.

However, the film of Downton Abbey was not conceived until the show ended on ITV in 2015.

Asked if she had seen the Downton film and whether Callthe Midwife deserved the same treatment, Judy Parfitt said: “I haven’t seen the Downton film but we started our series before Downton Abbey.”

And Jenny Agutter added: “Yes, there should be a film. “I don’t know why we don’t do a film with Callthe Midwife.

“I would want to go somewhere hot. I don’t know whether anyone knows the writer….”

Eastenders actor Cliff Parisi, who plays Fred Buckle, joked:

“If they don’t do that, there could always be awest End musical.we often break into song.”

A source close to the show said that the Christmas special was feature-length at an hour and a half and filming entailed a gruelling schedule.

Asked if a film was a possibility they replied: “It would be unlikely at the moment.

“Each Christmas special is like a film itself at 90 minutes long.

“Callthe Midwife has also been commissioned for another two series and filming takes place for six months of the year.” In the Christmas special, Mother Mildred (Miriam Margolyes) has a “calling from God” to set up a “branch house” in the Outer Hebrides.

However, plans for celebrating Christmas on an isolated island do not go smoothly when the local Scots presbyterian congregation ban the nuns’ Christmas tree.

Agutter said: “The story has a very magical quality about it.

“It’s quite different from anything we have done before. It’s very imaginative.”