‘Call the Midwife’ Is Back: Where Are the Former Stars Now?
Call the Midwife’s 12th season finished airing in its native U.K. last month, and now it’s U.S. viewers’ turn to get back with the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House.
Season 12 debuts on PBS on March 19, with Rebecca Gethings (The Serpent Queen) joining the cast as Sister Veronica.
“It is now 1968, and there are changes in the air,” PBS says in a synopsis of the Season 12 premiere. “Enoch Powell’s infamous speech casts a long shadow over the borough. Nonnatus House welcomes a new nun to the team, Sister Veronica, who impresses everyone except for Nurse Crane [Linda Bassett].”
As we get ready to greet a new cast member on Call the Midwife, where are the show’s alums now? Catch up with 13 of the show’s former stars in the gallery below.
Call the Midwife, Season 12 Premiere, Sunday, March 19, PBS
Jessica Raine (Jenny Lee)
After leaving Midwife in 2014, Raine had weighty roles in TV shows like Wolf Hall, Fortitude, and Informer. And last year, she played Catherine Parr in Starz’s Becoming Elizabeth and starred as social worker Lucy Chambers in Prime Video’s The Devil’s Hour.
Miranda Hart (Chummy Noakes)
Hart, who joined Melissa McCarthy in the 2015 action-comedy film Spy, continues to collaborate with top talent. In 2020, for example, she shared the screen with Anya Taylor-Joy in the Jane Austin adaptation Emma. And in March, she joined other British comedians in the charitable event “Comic Relief: The Truth & Everything Except The Truth.”
Pam Ferris (Sister Evangelina)
Ferris went regal after Call the Midwife, portraying Queen Victoria in the 2018 Will Ferrell–John C. Reillycomedy Holmes & Watson. The following year, she played Mrs. Faulkner in the biopic film Tolkien. And in 2021, she appeared in BBC Two’s Beauty and the Beast: A Comic Relief Pantomime for Christmas.
Bryony Hannah (Sister Mary Cynthia)
Since leaving Midwife, Hannah has guest starred in a number of British crime shows: Death in Paradise, The Chelsea Detective, and Sister Boniface Mysteries. She also took the role of Alice in the 2021 film The Last Duel.
Ben Caplan (Peter Noakes)
Caplan joined Liam Neeson in the 2018 action film The Commuter, and he has an uncredited role in this year’s biopic film Golda, starring Helen Mirren. On the TV side of things, Caplan has appeared in episodes of Casualty, Silent Witness, and Small Axe.
Dorothy Atkinson (Jane Sutton)
Emerald Fennell (Patsy Mount)
Fennell may be the most visible Midwife alum, since she masterminded the second season of the BBC America series Killing Eve and won an Academy Award for writing the 2020 thriller film Promising Young Woman. She also played Camilla Parker Bowles in two seasons of Netflix’s The Crown. Coming up, she has a role in this year’s film Barbie.
Victoria Yeates (Sister Winifred)
In 2021, Yeates recurred as witch Elizabeth Jackson in Sky One’s A Discovery of Witches. And last year, she appeared on screen as another witch, reprising her role as Bunty Broadacre, assistant to Newt Scamander, in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
Jack Ashton (Tom Hereward)
Since his Midwife exit, Ashton starred in the thriller film Welcome to Curiosity and the horror short Firstand guest-starred in the British TV series McDonald & Dodds, Casualty, and War Gamers. On the personal front, Ashton has two children with Call the Midwife costar Helen George.
Charlotte Ritchie (Barbara Hereward)
Kate Lamb (Delia Busby)
Lamb has certainly kept busy since her Midwife days: Just last year, she appeared in the British TV series Rules of the Game, Magpie Murders, and Industry. And before that, she popped up in episodes of The Salisbury Poisonings, Roadkill, and Stephen.
Jack Hawkins (Christopher Dockerill)
Since exiting Midwife, Hawkins guest-starred in the ITV detective dramas Endeavour and Midsomer Murders and the HBO Max series Raised by Wolves. He also voiced a character in the 2021 video game Call of Duty: Vanguard.
Jennifer Kirby (Valerie Dyer)
Peacock subscribers got to see Kirby recur as guardian teacher Alberta Casey in eight episodes of the fantasy series Vampire Academy. And Kirby also has Endeavour on her filmography: She played Dr. Gillian Nicholls in a 2021 episode of the show.
