Our take
A special about where home is, which takes the nuns out of Poplar and into the orphanage and corridors of their Mother House. It is gentler than some, with an election, a nativity play complete with donkey and a new arrival who changes one family for good. The street birth is a highlight, and Miriam Margolyes makes a formidable entrance. The most-watched programme of Christmas Day 2018 once catch-up was counted.
What happens
As Christmas approaches, Trixie returns refreshed from Italy, but the sisters are called away: the order's Mother Superior is gravely ill, and all the nuns must go to the Mother House to elect her successor. Sister Mildred, travelling from Hong Kong with four Chinese orphans, stops in Poplar first, and Sisters Julienne and Winifred leave with her, while Sister Monica Joan stays behind. Julienne dreads being elected and taken away from the community; Winifred falls for the orphanage's children and wants to stay. In Poplar, Trixie finds that mothers increasingly want hospital births, until the hospital turns one away and the midwives deliver Mavis's baby in the street. At the Mother House Shelagh helps sort the paperwork, and a frightened pregnant woman, Lena, keeps appearing in the grounds; she was sent from the orphanage to Australia as a child and parted from her brother Billy. Mildred is elected, keeps Winifred at the orphanage and sends Julienne home; Shelagh finds Billy, who arrives with Fred and Violet for the orphans' nativity, and the Turners take home May, the oldest orphan, to foster. Everyone returns to a joyful Christmas at Nonnatus.
Can the kids watch it?
No BBFC rating found. It was a Christmas Day family-time drama, but it includes births, illness and some sad stories, so best for older children watching with a grown-up.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Jenny Agutter as Sister Julienne
- Linda Bassett as Nurse Phyllis Crane
- Judy Parfitt as Sister Monica Joan
- Helen George as Nurse Trixie Franklin
- Laura Main as Nurse Shelagh Turner
- Victoria Yeates as Sister Winifred
- Annabelle Apsion as Violet Buckle
- Leonie Elliott as Nurse Lucille Anderson
Guest stars
- Jennifer Kirby as Nurse Valerie Dyer
- Stephen McGann as Dr Patrick Turner
- Cliff Parisi as Fred Buckle
- Ella Bruccoleri as Sister Frances
- Fenella Woolgar as Sister Hilda
- Miriam Margolyes as Sister Mildred
- Daniel Laurie as Reggie Jackson
- Georgie Glen as Miss Higgins
- Bronwyn James as Mavis Hollier
- Andy Beckwith as Nolly Watling
- Jack Shalloo as Bobby Hollier
- Margaret Jackman as Elderly Nun
- Vanessa Redgrave as Voice of Mature Jennifer Worth
Writer
- Heidi Thomas
Director
- Syd Macartney