Call The Midwife Christmas special: Star Helen George promises celebration with a carnival mood

The Call The Midwife nurses go Christmas shopping

“A fabulous celebration!” is how Helen George, who plays Nurse Trixie Franklin, describes the 2020 Christmas special of the much-loved period drama.

And there are some exciting scenes involving the circus, with Doctor Who star Peter Davison as Mr Percival the Ringmaster.

“Reggie and I make an excuse to go down there, to do a little bit of trade with them, because it is Christmas,” explained Cliff Parisi, who plays Fred Buckle.

“And we get to have a little preview which is fabulous. It’s brilliant, it’s like a proper circus. We’ve got tumblers, trapeze acts, horses. People will love it; it’s going to take them back. Remember when we used to have the circus on Christmas Day on TV?”

Parisi teases there ends up being a “disaster at the circus and a bit of an emergency”.

He says: “Reggie goes missing, and Fred has a little bit of a flap.”

Ella Bruccoleri, who plays Sister Frances, reveals she gets to be involved in a “lovely” storyline.

“There’s an old character that comes back that Shelagh (Laura Main) was really close to. And I get to see the connection between them,” says Bruccoleri.

“I haven’t done many births so every birth storyline I get to do I kind of feel like I find my feet a little bit more.”

However, birth scenes have been made more difficult with Covid-19 filming restrictions, confides Bruccoleri.

“We don’t get to have any contact with the babies at all, in any scenes. So, the mums dress as us and stand in for those shots, they are wearing the full habits and stuff.”

Series 19 of Call The Midwife is set to launch in 2021. Until then, Judy Parfitt, who plays Sister Monica Joan, thinks that people will really appreciate this one new episode as, she quips, “everyone is sick to death of repeats, for a start”.

“Call the Midwife touches something in people that I’ve never seen before,” she added. “They feel they own it, in a way. I suppose they feel they’ve grown up with it over the last 10 years.”

Call The Midwife, BBC1, Christmas Day, 7.40pm