‘Call the Mdwife’ has begun filming this year’s Christmas Special, as well as episodes for the forthcoming series 7, and there’s a brand new midwife in town.
Leonie Elliott will be joining the rest of the team at Nonnatus House as Nurse Lucille Anderson, the first West Indian midwife to be a regular character in the series, and will reflect the true history of many nurses who came from the Caribbean in the 1960s to support the NHS.
Fans may recognise the actress from previous appearances in ‘Black Mirror’, ‘Danny and the Human Zoo’ and ‘Wondrous Oblivion’.
The series’ writer Heidi Thomas is back on duty for the seventh series of the show, which drew up to 11million viewers last year. Radio Times readers recently voted the show the best drama of the 21st century in a poll.
The Christmas Special will begin under a thick coat of snow, recalling accurate conditions of 1963, when temperatures plunged to a record low in England and brought the country to a near standstill.
In the new series, the midwives, typically, will battle against their straitened circumstances to help local mothers-to-be. Issues covered in the new series range from leprosy, tokophobia to Huntingdon’s Chorea, as well as continuing to deal with unmarried mothers, and their own personal dramas.
Trixie’s romance with Christopher continues to develop, whilst Tom and Barbara enjoy life as a married couple. Nurse Crane will find her authority questioned from an unexpected quarter, and Sister Monica Joan will be forced to accept her failing faculties. And life for the Turners is turned upside down when Shelagh decides to employ an au pair!
Regular faces back on duty include Jenny Agutter (Sister Julienne), Linda Bassett (Nurse Crane), Judy Parfitt (Sister Monica Joan), Helen George (Trixie), Laura Main (Shelagh Turner), Charlotte Ritchie (Barbara), Victoria Yeates (Sister Winifred), Jennifer Kirby (Valerie), Stephen McGann (Dr Turner), Jack Ashton (Tom), Cliff Parisi (Fred), Annabelle Apsion (Violet), Max Macmillan (Timothy) and Jack Hawkins (Christopher).