Miranda Hart reveals what’s in store for Chummy and the rest of the popular Poplar characters during this year’s Call the Midwife Christmas special (BBC1, Christmas Day)…
Chummy’s a new mummy! How is she adjusting to motherhood?
"Chummy’s really enjoying motherhood and is very caring, but there’s a sense all her friends are doing stuff with a real purpose whereas she’s with a child! She finds being a mother fulfilling, but it’s a big adjustment and there’s a hint she’s struggling to let go of her work.”
Apart from looking after baby Fred, how is she keeping busy?
“Because her policeman husband Peter is working a lot of night shifts, she’s keeping busy with lots of housework and making soft furnishings. Chummy never does anything half-heartedly, so she’s making lots of scatter cushions and blankets, and sends her husband off with a little Tupperware box of perfectly chopped up sandwiches - it’s really cute!”
An unexploded World War Two bomb causes the community to be evacuated during the Christmas episode. How does Chummy cope in the circumstances?
“When Chummy first arrives at the rescue hall she knows she’s not there in a professional capacity, but [even so] is completely thrown when she tries to make the teas and is told to look after her baby! Chummy decides she needs more than just sitting about so she goes on a mission to become the cubs’ leader again and sort them out!”
But despite Chummy’s best efforts to lift the mood, the bomb turns out to be more dangerous than initially thought...
“There are some tough storylines and it’s moving and sentimental without being saccharine. It’s rather sad see them all fleeing Nonnatus House. I really enjoy putting on Chummy’s glasses and playing her again. She’s loveable and vulnerable and for me it’s a childhood dream to be on the BBC at Christmas.
Are you becoming something of a Christmas institution?
"That’s ridiculous. Me and the Queen! Last year I couldn’t watch the Christmas special with my family. I had a bath and left them all to it. The next night it was the first episode of the new series of Miranda – so I had another bath! That was awful, as I wanted to listen to hear if anyone was laughing downstairs."
