Christmas TV: BBC's Call the Midwife stars Jenny Agutter and Helen George on what makes it a festive hit

This year is no different: we’re getting ready to return to Nonnatus House for the snowy season in 1960s Poplar, to be reunited with the show’s wonderful characters for a heart-warming story of the joy of new life and the power of love.

The feature-length festive special is also a prelude for the twelfth series of the BBC drama, offering tasters of what’s to come in the New Year.

Call The Midwife stars Jenny Agutter in her role as Sister Julienne.

Agutter is perhaps best known to Yorkshire audiences for her role in The Railway Children, the 1970 film partly shot in Keighley, in which she played Roberta 'Bobbie' Waterbury. The actress also reprised her portrayal in the its sequel, The Railway Children Return, which came out earlier this year.

Agutter and co-star Helen George, who plays Nurse Trixie Franklin, give us a sneak peek and share behind-the-scenes secrets.

“The Christmas episode is like a big box of chocolates, with shiny lovely wrappers, And each story is carefully told,” says George.

Agutter adds: “This particular Christmas is one of the few times that Sister Julienne hasn’t been totally focused on how to keep Nonnatus House together due to the financial situation. Now there’s the wonderful Matthew there who is supporting and is offering help all the time.

“Poplartunity Knocks was a really brilliant idea of Fred’s and does bring the community together and we get to see what talents they all have, which is wonderful and surprising. And it reminds me very much of my childhood, where Opportunity Knocks did actually exist and we were always riveted by it. So that’s a lovely element of the Christmas story.

“We see people coming back, very particularly in the Christmas episode, we have the Mullucks coming back. We see the effect (thalidomide) continued to have on people, the difficulties of having a child who doesn’t quite fit in.

“In this episode you really get the sense of Nonnatus House, the midwives and the nuns being at the centre of the community, which is a strong community.”

Trixie has a romantic moment this Christmas. What was it lke filming that?

George says: “Trixie has a really lovely time at Christmas, it is very romantic.

“It was really lovely, we were filming by the Albert Bridge in Battersea. The councillor said: ‘Oh, yes, we’ll leave the lights on all night for you, you can film all night’.

“It was a night shoot, and at like, five to 10, after we’ve done one take, the lights went out.

“They were on hold to the council for the rest of the night trying to get the lights, but they never came on. So the DOP (director of photography) lit it beautifully and managed to work around it.”

Viewers, though, can expected a distinctively festive episode full of references to the Nativity story.

“I don’t think we’ve ever done a Christmas show that has been so Christmas, from beginning to end,” says Agutter.

“Every single story that’s in there, in some way, someone’s touched by it. With the birth of their son at a certain time with three kings being there, even trying to get into the shed (to give birth)… There’s so many little references to Christmas from beginning to end.

“And it’s unusual, I think, because often we sense we’re there, and coming into the new year, but not celebrating it the way it has. It’s (writer, Heidi Thomas’s) extraordinary gift to write the dramatic piece that actually makes you also focus on real things that are happening. And that did happen.”

We also see Trixie help someone who is suffering from alcoholism, an issue which she has contended with herself in the past.

Is this an important issue to discuss at Christmas?

“It’s definitely a poignant time of year for this storyline,” says George.

"I think Christmas is one of the most testing times for a lot of people, and a lot of families, so of course it’s a good time to touch on the subject again. I have had a lot of feedback, and people suddenly realising that their own drinking was perhaps out of hand and getting help after seeing the series.

“And it’s the one thing… you’ll be at a party and people will still say: ‘No come on, have a drink!’

“We don’t deal well with alcoholism in this country. We don’t appreciate it and empathise with it in the way that we should.”

One thing that we always love from the Call the Midwife Christmas special is the snowy scenes. What’s it like working in the ‘snow’, and did it actually snow that much in December back then?

Agutter says: “It makes you feel cold. It wasn’t! But it makes you feel cold.

“All the research is there. It’s like the year that Reggie really wanted it to snow – ‘was it going to snow?’ – and it did snow, on Christmas Eve. And in this case, obviously it was a very snowy period of time.”

Call the Midwife is such a pivotal part of Christmas Day for so many people. How does that make them feel?

“It is lovely that we’ve become part of the Christmas Day menu,” says George. “People always say they sit down on Christmas Day and watch it after the Queen – I guess it will be the King this year.

“It is so flattering and feels unreal that we’ve been doing these so long.

“It is funny to think back to the first series when we didn’t do a Christmas special and how far we’ve come, how established we are.”

Call The Midwife returns to BBC One this Christmas Day.