Oh what a bundle of joy... and heartache: A missing nun, a midwife with alcohol problems and a miracle drug with tragic side effects, yes, it promises to be another cracking Call The Midwife Christmas special

• e-mail

Christmas never runs smoothly in Poplar, does it? In the three years since Call The Midwife became a perennial festive favourite we’ve had paupers in the workhouse, teenage pregnancies and war-damaged fathers. 

For every heartwarming smile and laugh-out-loud moment the show’s Christmas specials have provided there’s been a parallel plotline guaranteed to bring a lump to the throat.

And that’s why Call The Midwife is officially the nation’s favourite drama – no other TV series had higher overall ratings last year. 

Emerald Fennell, Helen George and Charlotte Ritchie who are all facing their demons this December 

Downton Abbey may have the gorgeous dresses and Poldark the dreamboat actor, but Midwife has gritty nostalgia in spades, stories of real poverty and how a sense of community can overcome almost anything. There hasn’t been one single sex scene in the show – a chaste kiss is about as raunchy as it gets – but there have been lots and lots of lovely babies.

This year’s Christmas Special will be no different. It takes us back to where we left the midwives at the end of the last series in March and then moves it on. It’s now almost 1961 and the world is changing around Nonnatus House where the nuns and midwives live. 

Skirts are getting shorter, everyone wants a television and oh, there’s a new wonder drug all the mums-to-be are taking for their morning sickness. It’s called Thalidomide.

There are plenty of weepy moments in this particular episode. Whether it’s the shocking disappearance of the increasingly confused and unwell Sister Monica Joan (played by Judy Parfitt), the reunion of midwife Patsy (Emerald Fennell) with her secret lover who almost died at the end of the last series, or the church cleaner Iris who lost a child one Christmas and has never been able to enjoy it since. 

The nuns and midwives celebrate during the latest Call the Midwife Christmas special 

The midwives come into contact with Iris as they prepare the church for the Christmas service and rally round as the terrible memories of her loss come flooding back. Handyman Fred’s in his Santa costume as usual – and then there’s a miracle birth that brings home to everyone the true meaning of Christmas. 

‘It’s never an easy show to just sit back and enjoy after you’ve had dinner,’ smiles Jenny Agutter, who plays the ever calm head nun Sister Julienne. ‘The midwives have to deal with harsh and difficult scenarios. But there’s always the sense that the community and the nuns in Nonnatus House will find their way through.’

Based on the memoirs of real East End midwife Jenny Worth and written by Heidi Thomas, the tales in Call The Midwife have always been so finely balanced and delicately woven together that we fall in and out of the lives of the midwives and the nuns they work with while also encountering a myriad of mums and mums-to-be in one of London’s most deprived boroughs.

The Christmas special starts off on a jolly enough note: there’s a bus trip with the local children to see the Christmas lights in the West End and a frisson of excitement because the BBC is coming to the church to film the Christmas service while, as usual, Sister Monica Joan and Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris) are bickering. 

Pam Ferris as Sister Evangelina

But then Sister Monica Joan disappears. ‘There’s an element of everyone being rushed off their feet and treating her as a liability and not giving her the attention she needs,’ says Jenny Agutter. ‘Then she wanders off. Her shoes are found and everyone assumes the worst. It’s freezing outside and no one can find her.’

Meanwhile, inside Nonnatus House, problems are festering. Midwife Trixie, played by Helen George who was recently seen on Strictly Come Dancing, is still in a fragile state, realising she has a problem with alcohol as she tries to overcome her break-up with dishy vicar Tom. 

‘She’s a bit wiser, she’s been through a lot so she’s a bit stronger in herself,’ says Helen, who herself went through a painful marriage break-up while she was filming these scenes. ‘She’s definitely trying to repair herself but I think there’s still a lot of damage.

‘She’s struggling to keep her alcoholism quiet; she knows that if people find out there’s a danger she could lose her job so it’s something she has to struggle with in private. It’s a difficult time for her but what’s been amazing is the support this storyline has had from viewers. 

'One man wrote to me and said watching it had made him realise he had a problem with alcohol and he was going to go to Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s important to get a story like this right.’

There are secrets too for Patsy as her girlfriend Delia, who was knocked off her bike and left brain damaged at the end of the last series, makes a poignant return to Poplar. ‘The response to that storyline was really amazing and something I’m very proud of,’ says Emerald Fennell, who plays Patsy. 

‘My gay friends say it enabled them to have open discussions with their grandparents. I think it’s good to see homosexuality in a period piece like this. Patsy and Delia had to keep their relationship secret or they could lose their jobs. That means she can’t confide in anyone.’

Jenny Agutter agrees. ‘My own memory of school is that there were three or four pairs of spinster teachers. I don’t know whether they were widows from the war or whether they were living with other women, but in those days people didn’t ask questions. 

'Today there are still things we’re intolerant of but we have progressed. Through this series we encounter more unmarried mothers, and people still saw them as immoral at the start of the 1960s; it’s good to remind oneself about how we as a society have moved on.’

This year will be the first Christmas special without midwife Chummy, played by Miranda Hart, who couldn’t find time in her work schedule. Last season the series weathered the disappearance of lead character Jenny Lee – when actress Jessica Raine decided she wanted to pursue other projects – without an impact on the ratings, and producers are hoping fans won’t miss Miranda, who hopes to return in the next series, too much. 

Judy Parfitt was particularly close to Miranda on the set and the pair were known for dissolving into fits of giggles during scenes. ‘We do miss Miranda and she’s wonderful as Chummy,’ says Judy. ‘But at least I’m not giggling as much as I used to when she was around.’

There’s still plenty of laughter on set though, and it works as both an antidote to the often serious subject matter and as a bonding device for the actresses. Charlotte Ritchie, who joined the show last season as midwife Barbara Gilbert, is apparently the worst. ‘She’s definitely the naughtiest,’ says Helen George. ‘She’s got a cheeky side and she’s always singing. But we’re all as bad as each other. We often get into trouble with the director for talking too much; it’s like being at school!’

The Midwife seasons are filmed back to front; the Christmas special is shot in the summer while the regular series is filmed in the winter. ‘When we’re filming the Christmas episode we’ll do anything to stay cool,’ says Emerald Fennell. 

‘There’s one scene where we’re in a bus on our way to the West End. It was baking hot and we were in scarves and gloves. I kept trying to take my tights off but then I’d hear through a loudspeaker, “Put your tights back on!”’ But I think it’s even worse trying to film a heatwave in winter. Last year we were eating ice lollies in November.’

The fifth series of the show starts, as usual, a few weeks after Christmas. Over the series Trixie starts a fitness class; Barbara finds romance while Patsy struggles to meet up with Delia. And then there’s the fallout from the new wonder drug as babies start being born with deformities; no one realises it’s Thalidomide that’s having such terribly drastic effects.

Once more the most moving stories from our recent past are brought to light in the warm glow of the Midwife series – and it’s likely to be as unforgettable as the rest.

Call The Midwife, Christmas Day, 7.30pm, BBC1.