His best to good books

get-together ahead of their extended special episode on Christmas Day.

Stephen. “She hardly ever comes to the set.

“So when I come in from work she’ll ask how it’s all going. I know how it is on a day-to-day basis but she’s all over the bigger picture.

“It works really well for us and we can enjoy having very different roles.”

As Poplar prepares for Christmas, the nuns travel to the Mother House to elect a new mother superior.

The 90-minute episode sees the arrival of three new characters, Sister Mildred, played by Miriam Margolyes, and two nuns, Sister Hilda (Fenella Woolgar) and Sister Frances (Ella Bruccoleri).

“The Christmas episode is never completely stand-alone,” says Stephen.

“Things happen – like major

introductions of characters – that then ride into the next series.

“But Heidi is always thinking about the audience, which can be very different on Christmas Day when you might have several generations sitting down to watch it all together.

“They have expectations of Christmas viewing.

“So, you can’t hit them between the eyes with all sorts of grim stuff.

“If there were particular, hard subjects, we might leave those to the series rather than tackle them in this.

“But being Call The Midwife, there’s always going to be emotion and we always have to have lots of festive themes.”