‘I wanted my Call the Midwife character to age normally – even if I didn’t want to’

“Let me just head upstairs with my cup of tea, and I’ll just get out the way,” comes the soft Aberdeenshire burr of Shelagh from Call the Midwife out of my phone. Or rather, it’s Laura Main, the actor who plays the show’s beloved nun-turned-nurse. But with her reassuring voice talking about comforting cups of tea I half feel I’m about to be whipped behind a curtain and tended to by Shelagh at Nonnatus House’s mother and baby clinic. I doubt I’m the only one who’d struggle to separate Main from her character. Along with Jenny Agutter and Helen George, she is one of the longest-serving actors in the BBC Sunday night stalwart. She has played kind, capable Shelagh since the show began in 2012 for all 15 of its series. Not that the part has ever got dull. She began the show as Sister Bernadette, who ditched the habit to marry handsome Dr Turner (played by Stephen McGann, husband of series writer Heidi Thomas) in series three, and now does a very convincing impression of having it all as she clip-clops in her sensible heels between high-stakes midwifery and her ever-growing brood of children. But this year, for the first time in 15 years, Main hasn’t filmed Call the Midwife. The show is on sabbatical, after a reasonably final-feeling end to the most recent series; the last episode saw the midwives weighing up their next steps after the local board of health closed Nonnatus House’s maternity home, essentially putting them out of their jobs. While the BBC has confirmed plans for a 16th series (and a film), there’s no doubt that, as Main puts it, “they’ve got a new baby right now”. Instead of the Call the Midwife special being the star atop the broadcaster’s Christmas Day schedule, this year a prequel, Sisters in Arms, following the East London midwives during the Blitz, will launch with a three-part miniseries over the festive period. “With genuine interest and love for the world of Call the Midwife, I’ll be tuning in,” says Main, keeping the wistful note in her voice to an admirable minimum. Stephen McGann as Patrick Turner, Main as Shelagh Turner and Annabelle Apsion as Violet Buckle in Call the Midwife (Photo: BBC / Neal Street Productions / Charmaine Man) But it’s not easy to leave Poplar behind. We begin to talk about the play she’s currently touring with, By Royal Appointment – a gentle, amiable drama about Elizabeth II by Daisy Goodwin, the writer of ITV historical series Victoria. Main chats for a moment about the intensive rehearsal process – she joined at the last minute, after Eastenders’ Samantha Womack pulled out. But she drifts almost immediately back to her life as Shelagh. “Look at me, I’m terrible, I’ve gone straight back to talking about Call the Midwife,” she groans jokily. But then her voice grows quiet and sincere. “Because it’s my life, well, isn’t it? Most of my professional life has been in Call the Midwife.” And she says the “highlight” of her week on tour has been “going back to digs” to watch her former Call the Midwife co-star Miranda Hart in The Celebrity Traitors. “She’s being the good fun Miranda that I remember when we all began working on the first series of Call the Midwife,” she says – we’re speaking a few days before Hart’s untimely “murder” on the show. “I remember at the time putting her down as a major reason we bonded as a company.” But while Call the Midwife might be tricky to part with momentarily, the reviews suggest Main has embraced her new role in By Royal Appointment, which looks at how Elizabeth II communicated to the world through her clothes. Main plays The Dresser, or Gigi, a working class woman who rises to become the Queen’s confidant and de facto adviser over her years helping with the monarch’s outfits. Laura Main as Gigi, The Dresser in By Royal Appointment (Photo: Robert Day) Like The Crown, By Royal Appointment jumps through the decades to spotlight milestone events in the late Queen’s reign. But it also movingly probes the intimacy of dressing someone in old age – in a scene set in the monarch’s final, frailer years, a stage direction says Gigi is “dressing her as one would a child”. This has unavoidable parallels with Main’s own life. She spends a lot of time “hotfooting it to Aberdeen”, where during the break in Call the Midwife filming she has been helping to care for her 91-year-old mother: “She really needed help at some points this year and I was able to be there for her.” Her mum is going through a good patch right now to the extent Main feels able to do By Royal Appointment. And when she’s not with her in person, “what’s wonderful is I just go on the Alexa [Drop In feature], so I just appear on the screen. I appear before rehearsals and I appear at lunchtime, and we have a chat. And she’s great… I just feel so lucky to still have my mum and to have this time with her”. Main’s two sisters encouraged her to do the play as well as a panto at Christmas – she’s in Sleeping Beauty in Aylesbury. “I love being creative, so they didn’t want me to give that up,” she says. But a lot of carers do leave their paid jobs – a recent study found about 1,500 people a day in the UK are quitting their jobs to become unpaid carers, as they struggle to balance day jobs with the needs of loved ones, amid declining access to state-funded care. How does Main feel about the level of support for carers from the government? “The fact that our prime minister has an intimate understanding about the care system through his personal experience – that gives me great hope,” she says, referring to how Andy Burnham has made adult social care one of his flagship policies following the death of his father, who had lived in a care home while suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Jane Asher as The Queen and Laura Main as The Dresser in By Royal Appointment (Photo: Robert Day) “I hope that we will see changes,” she continues. “It’s really tough on people having to give up work. And some people find themselves [in positions] where they will be caring their whole life, the rest of their life, or for many, many years. I’ve felt very supported by the council, Aberdeen council, and our care manager… Often the hardest thing is getting the support in the first place. But we’ve been well supported.” Main often reads to her mum in the evenings – lots of books about the royals, as it happens. “I am really very much an expert on the Queen,” she jokes. “So given the speed of my involvement with it, having to learn the lines and the accent…” She indeed swaps her Scottish accent for a Wigan one in the play. “I’ve done lots of different accents on stage so that didn’t concern me too much,” she says. Nevertheless, she’s glad she could use her natural voice for Call the Midwife. “It’s nice that my big break came because of the accent I have.” When she auditioned for the part, Shelagh was supposed to speak using received pronunciation. “It was the director Philippa Lowthorpe who said, ‘Where are you from? Why don’t we try it in your own accent?” she remembers. “I sort of felt in the room that it fitted.” Her voice becomes conspiratorial. “I knew I was in with a chance.” In a piece about Call the Midwife for this newspaper last year, critic Fiona Mountford lamented that the show can’t seem to hold onto the younger generation of its lead actors. Main, as we know, has by contrast been in it for the long haul. But over those 15 years, did she ever consider quitting to try other projects, like one-time Call the Midwife actors Jessica Raine (who recently starred in the BBC drama Two Weeks in August), Emerald Fennell (now director of Wuthering Heights and Saltburn), and Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts, Feel Good)? “Never,” she shoots back immediately. “Never. Never. I knew that, I’m in something really special… It’s just –” she breaks off, apparently lost for words at such an abominable suggestion. “No way.” Main as Shelagh Turner (Photo: BBC / Neal Street Productions / Nicky Johnston) One of the things I’ve always loved about Call the Midwife is the escapism it provides. The real world may be currently run, and ruined, by toxic strongmen – but in Poplar, wise, collaborative older women wearing wimples call the shots. In an age of ever more extreme beauty ideals, has working in a cast featuring barefaced nonagenarian nuns given Main, who turns 50 next year, more confidence? “Well yes, in that I would always put Shelagh first,” she says slowly, sounding mischievous. “I felt very strongly that Shelagh should age at the true rate, even if Laura wanted to give the illusion of slowing the passage of time.” Being in the period drama first as a nun and then as Shelagh gave an interesting perspective. “There was something quite liberating about being in a habit for two years, I won’t lie,” she laughs. “You didn’t have to worry about a thing then. And I found the transition actually quite difficult. Because it suddenly felt more exposing.” I’m endlessly curious about how the show navigates filming with tiny babies – an interest intensified after having my son a few years ago and realising just how diva-ish serene-looking newborns can be. What are shoots with young babies – the show uses babies up to about eight weeks old – like? “It’s really lovely,” says Main. “There’s a midwife on set always. A hush descends. The room is really warm for the baby. It’s lovely getting to see these new mums and dads come along for the day with their newborn. We all coo around their baby. It’s such a special aspect of the programme that [birth scenes are] given time in a way that birth hadn’t been before.” Three years ago, the show fairly amusingly made headlines after academics said it “should come with a health warning”. Researchers looked at episodes of Call the Midwife along with One Born Every Minute and This Is Going to Hurt and said that the “inaccurate birthing practices” they showed should come with safety recommendations to avoid misinterpretations by viewers. Shelagh does a very convincing impression of having it all as she clip-clops in her sensible heels between high-stakes midwifery and her ever-growing brood of children (Photo: BBC / Neal Street Productions / Olly Courtney) This was largely about “outdated” scenes showing umbilical cords being clamped immediately after birth; the guidance today is to wait one to five minutes before doing so. At the time, a Call the Midwife spokesperson insisted the show is “highly accurate to the period it depicts”. A hush comes over Main when I bring this up. “Well, I didn’t see that. Okay,” she says gravely. She sounds about as contrite as if Shelagh had dropped a newborn on its head. It’s not as if she’s responsible for the show’s depiction of childbirth – and she’s certainly not personally claiming to be a midwifery expert. How competent would she feel in a real delivery? “I mean, I’m calling 999 and I’m helping with calming breathing. I think that’s what’s happening there.” She’s having a break from donning scrubs and wielding the forceps at present, anyway, what with the Call the Midwife hiatus. This has its advantages when we look ahead to Christmas. This year, Main will be able to settle down on the sofa after her turkey to watch the merrymaking in Poplar without fretting about her own performance. “I won’t have to watch any of it through my fingers,” she chuckles. “I’ll just sit back and relax.” And what about this Call the Midwife film that the BBC has confirmed, supposedly set in an overseas location? “Well, yes, there’s no dates or anything,” says Main. “I hope that is happening, but I’ve no idea when.” She points out that the break hasn’t been as hard to adjust to as outsiders may think. The cast were always used to having time off; the show would film for just over six months, “then we’d have the other half a year to play with”. And given the support she’s been able to give her mother, “I feel like I’ve been really useful and that’s felt really good. That has really fuelled me”. Even so, the grand Poplar return will hopefully be delivered in due course. “It will be so nice,” she says. “There’s no place like home, is there?” By Royal Appointment is touring to 6 Feb 2027