‘Call the Midwife’ Star Judy Parfitt Opens Up About Show Going on Hiatus: ‘It’ll Be Hard For All of Us’

Call the Midwife is set to return for its 15th season on PBS on March 22, but after that, the hit British period drama will be going on hiatus for a little while, which is already affecting the show’s cast.

In a new interview with the Radio Times, Judy Parfitt, who has played Sister Monica Joan on the show since the first season, opened up about the upcoming hiatus, saying, “It will be hard for all of us.”

For fans who might be worried, rest assured, the show isn’t canceled. Instead, it is taking a break after Season 15 to make way for a prequel series set during the Second World War, along with a spinoff movie set overseas in 1972. However, it’s unclear when the regular show will be back.

“This time of year, you thank God you’re nearly finished because you’re so tired,” Parfitt told the outlet as she described her routine working on Call the Midwife over the last 15 years. “From about the beginning of March, you start thinking how lovely it’ll be to see everyone and start working again. Then it’s April and I usually look forward to April.”

She added, “So for it not to be there really shakes me a bit. This company has been through so much together that we are a family. It’ll be hard for all of us.”

Judy Parfitt in Call the Midwife; Olly Courtney / ©PBS/Neal Street Prod./BBC / Courtesy Everett Collection

Back in June, rumors spread about Call the Midwife‘s future after the U.K.’s Daily Star reported that the show would be coming to an end after Season 15. However, the show’s U.K. broadcaster, the BBC, later released a statement denying those reports.

“In case you’ve heard any reports to the contrary this morning… The BBC would like to reassure fans that Call The Midwife will remain at the heart of the BBC for years to come,” the BBC Press Office X account wrote at the time. “As previously announced, there are two Christmas specials, a new series, a film and prequel series, before a sixteenth series in due course. Call the Midwife isn’t going anywhere!”

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Call the Midwife debuted back in January 2012 and follows a group of midwives in London’s impoverished East End during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Parfitt, who turned 90 in November, has been a part of the show from the very beginning and has loved playing her character.

“I’ve always wanted to play a nun because I was educated by nuns, and I loved Monica Joan’s character,” Parfitt told the Radio Times. “The way she was written as quirky and offbeat was a joy; she spoke in a different way from everybody else, which is hell to learn. People come to her for advice but she’s also highly strung, very sensitive. If she’s thrown off-course, she loses the plot.”

She added, “Having all that to play was wonderful. I don’t know what I’ll do without her, actually.”

While Season 15 isn’t set to premiere on PBS until Sunday, March 22, at 8/7c, those with access to PBS Passport will be able to begin streaming the weekly episodes earlier, beginning on Friday, February 20.