The Celebrity Traitors and Blue Ligthts stars Julie Lead All-Star Cast Call the Midwife Prequel This Christmas

The Celebrity Traitors star Julie Hesmondhalgh and Blue Lights actor Martin McCann will be part of one of the BBC’s main TV offerings this Christmas, a Call the Midwife prequel called Call the Midwife: Sisters in Arms.

Filming has wrapped on the highly anticipated three-part special, which will air over the festive period.

Hesmondhalgh (Mr Bates vs the Post Office, Broadchurch) guest stars as Sister Alice in the three-hour event, which is now in post-production following shoots at the show’s home in Longcross, Surrey. Further details regarding a full-length series will be announced in due course.

Set in Poplar during the breakout of World War Two in September 1939, the prequel turns back the clock to explore Nonnatus House during its finest hour.

A Wartime Baptism of Fire

In 1939, Sister Monica Joan is in her prime, Sister Julienne and Sister Evangelina are young and zealous, and Nonnatus House remains the beating heart of Poplar. Working alongside Sister Alice (Hesmondhalgh) and local GP Dr Kit Malhotra (Bally Gill), the nuns dedicate their lives to mothers, babies, and the impoverished.

However, without gas and air, penicillin, TB treatments, or a welfare state, life becomes infinitely harder when war is declared.

Three young secular midwives—Sybil, Olive, and Marianne—face a baptism of fire as the blackout and the Blitz take hold. While bombs rain down from the sky, women give birth underground, families are shattered, and streets are reduced to rubble.

Narrated by Jenny Agutter as the older Sister Julienne, the young cast includes:

• Helena Wilson (The Hills of California) as young Sister Julienne
• Amy Booth-Steel (Down Cemetery Road) as young Sister Evangelina
• Helen Schlesinger (Ted Lasso) as young Sister Monica Joan
• Bally Gill (Slow Horses) as Dr Kit Malhotra
• Liv Andrusier (The Witcher) as Marianne Siegler
• Lizzie Back (Grantchester) as Sybil Maxted
• Ellie Mckay (Hijack) as Olive Dobbs

Fan-favourite characters are also getting origin stories: Ciaran Bowling (Dune Prophecy) stars as a 20-something Fred Buckle alongside Ami Metcalf as his wife Betty, while Ben Rose (This Town) plays a youthful, shy Dr Patrick Turner. Martin McCann (Blue Lights) and Rachel O’Connell (The Young Offenders) also guest star as Tommy and Mary Moffat.

Heidi Thomas OBE, creator and writer, says: “Having loved and lived with the Sisters of Nonnatus House for so many years, I found myself longing to turn the clock back and tell the story of their finest hour – the Blitz. Who were Sister Monica Joan, Sister Julienne, and Sister Evangelina, when they were young? What did they do, how did they survive, and how did the conflict change them?

“Above all else, Call the Midwife: Sisters in Arms is about what happens when women go to war. It is about love and birth, separation and courage, lipstick and nylons (or the lack thereof). But it is also a medical drama, set in a devastating landscape where even the nurses cannot know if they will live till morning.

“I thought I had cried all my tears when Sister Monica Joan died, at the end of Call the Midwife’s 15th series. But the thought of her back on her bike, cycling through an air raid, set me off again, as did images of young Sister Julienne shaking when the sirens sound, and Fred Buckle still in his 20s, black with soot and sweat as a volunteer fireman. Then I’d be laughing at Sister Evangelina, in her element as an Air Raid Warden, or the juvenile Dr Turner turning up at a dance and being shy with girls.

“Sisters in Arms has been a joy to write – like returning to the family home and finding all the people I have ever loved made young again and filled with new energy. I can’t wait to start filming and look forward to sharing our new show with Call the Midwife’s fantastic fans.”

Dame Pippa Harris DBE, executive producer, says: “It’s thrilling to watch Heidi Thomas create a series which I know will delight our loyal Call the Midwife audience, as well as drawing in new viewers. It echoes the original through its blend of engrossing medical stories, wit, and pathos, while the backdrop of WW2 adds a completely fresh layer of tension and jeopardy to the drama. Heidi’s extraordinary skill with character and story means viewers are in for a real treat this Christmas.”

Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, says: “We feel immensely proud to continue our partnership with the Call the Midwife team to take this very special, much-loved series in such an exciting direction. The cast assembled for Sisters in Arms are every bit as wonderful as Heidi’s scripts, and we can’t wait to take BBC viewers to the Poplar of 1939 to get to know them.”

The multi award-winning Call the Midwife, has ranked among the top five highest-rated dramas from January 2023 to date.

Millions of Traitors fans will be thrilled to see Julie on-screen alongside Blue Lights favourite Martin McCann in what is guaranteed to be one of the biggest TV hits this Christmas.

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