Call the Midwife: on set with Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart and Jenny Agutter Jennifer Worth died of cancer before the first series was completed. But it was she who spotted Miranda Hart on television and called the producers, saying she'd seen someone who looked just like her friend Camilla Fortescue-Cholmeley-Browne aka Chummy, the shy and awkward midwife who worked alongside her in the East End. When she was sent the script, Hart says she fell in love with the character instantly. It portrays someone from an upper-class background who is apparently very privileged, but actually is damaged and scared and can't find a place in the world. I really liked the idea of showing a vulnerable person from that class, and I think the audience felt the same about her, in terms of wanting it all to work out. Playing straight drama after fronting comedy is easier, she says, in that there's no pressure to get a laugh from a live audience. Although sometimes she's tempted to venture into Joyce Grenfell territory, or play a scene for laughs anyway. The scene she'd just finished, when we spoke, involved Chummy clumsily trying to mount the newfangled scooter that has arrived to replace their pushbikes. In her own sitcom, there might be a sideways fall at some point, or an unfortunate fart, and she says that everyone on-set has to have their comedy barometer on alert. It is hard, sometimes. You can so easily slip into jolly hockey sticks territory. Which I always wanted to avoid. As Hart is called off to change into nightclothes for a new scene in the kitchen of Nonnatus House, Helen George, who plays the irrepressible blonde midwife Trixie, comes into the parlour, her hair put up in curlers. "We've got a fun scene where I'm mid beauty routine," she explains. Arctic conditions aside, it's clear everyone here is genuinely enjoying their work, with the actors choosing to stay and chat to each other between scenes, rather than retreating to their warm trailers. "We have so many laughs," says George. Everybody came back from the first series - all of the crew, the art department and make-up - because it was such a wonderful job. As George goes off to shoot, Jessica Raine slips into the parlour. "We just hang out and gossip here," she smiles. And we sometimes find ourselves knitting! Like, "Oh my God! Are we actually from the Fifties?"" As the main character, the naive young midwife Jenny, Raine has had to get used to being recognised in public. "People sometimes stare at me and say, "Are you the midwife?" I don't know quite what to say to that. I'm not really a midwife! Nobody expected the show's huge success. "When I read the script, I thought it was interesting," says Jenny Agutter. But I couldn't see who would be the audience. Yet it has appealed to different backgrounds and different cultures. A third series is already being discussed, and Agutter puts it down to good characters, strong storytelling, and powerful writing from Heidi Thomas. It's looking at a time which was difficult, but they seem to get through it. Everybody was so pleased to be free and to have got over the war, so it was just about building their lives and getting on with it in difficult circumstances. And also childbirth is extraordinary. Now men are so much a part of it, but then they were not allowed in the room. Despite getting covered in fake blood (which leaves a lingering smell of Marmite, apparently) and real, even smellier occasional accidents while handling the newborn babies during shooting, all of the cast talk about enjoying the birth scenes most. Prosthetic babies are used when possible, but Agutter says the atmosphere shifts noticeably when the real babies are involved, and it isn't uncommon to see crew members wipe away a tear during some of the more emotional scenes. The men are really soft. They're the ones that talk about it more, telling you about the birth of their own children. And some of them had babies whilst we were doing it, so it's lovely. The new series sees Jenny and Chummy growing in confidence as midwives, and becoming more a part of the community they serve. Chummy has settled into married life and Raine hints that Jenny too might find love. Meanwhile, tensions surface between the nuns and the storylines continue to deal with strong social issues, with Jenny delivering a baby with spina bifida - "She doesn't handle it well," says Raine. The mother is completely shocked. There were no scans then, so you didn't know. "There's a really gritty, well-written episode that deals with abortion, contraception, and the possibility of being in charge of your own body," adds Agutter. All those things one is coming to in the Sixties that we didn't have in the Fifties. Series two of Call the Midwife begins on Sunday 20 January at 9pm on BBC One