Today, word has come from the BBC that Call The Midwife‘s Christmas special has already started filming – and that it will see at least one new addition to the cast.

Joining the team will be Leonie Elliott (Wonderous Oblivion, Danny And The Human Zoo) as Nurse Lucille Anderson, the first West Indian midwife to feature as a regular character in the series. Eagle-eyed viewers may remember her from last year’s Black Mirror episode, ‘Hated in the Nation’.

The Christmas special will see the midwives face the challenge winter 1963, the coldest for 300 years, when temperatures plunged to a record low and the whole country brought to a standstill. Valerie (Jennifer Kirby) will help a young couple deal with a traumatic birth, while Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) will strive to reunite a family torn apart by a tormenting father. Ex-Eastender, Anita Dobson, will also guest star. It will serve as an introduction for series 7 of the show, which will move forward through the decade marking its changes. The synopsis reads:

“In series seven the nuns and nurses find themselves tested both personally and professionally as never before. All around them they see the old East End vanishing, as slum clearances make way for bold new tower blocks to accommodate expanding communities. Their work brings them into contact with a wide range of challenging issues, from Leprosy, Tokophobia and Stroke, to Huntingdon’s Chorea, Cataracts, and unmarried mothers.

Trixie’s romance with Christopher continues to develop, whilst Tom and Barbara enjoy life as a married couple. Nurse Crane finds her authority questioned from an unexpected quarter, and Sister Monica Joan is forced to accept her failing faculties. And life for the Turners is turned upside down when Shelagh decides to employ an au pair!” 

Made by Neal Street Productions for BBC One, Call The Midwife has been one of Britain’s most popular drama series since it launched in 2012, and was recently been voted the Best Drama of the 21st Century in the BFI and Radio Times Festival Audience Poll.

Are you looking forward to series 7? Let us know!