(gentle festive music) (light festive music) - It feels amazing to be back.

And I think what's great is that Trixie, she's gone to New York and started a life out there, but she can't wait to get back to Poplar and back with her family for Christmas.

- Chris Harper is back with us as Geoffrey, which is very important that he's there for Christmas.

- It's so lovely for Trixie to see Geoffrey.

He's so much fun.

And our costumes are always in sync and we just have a lovely time together so it's fantastic.

- You're in the attic.

- Why am I in the attic?

- 'Cause I got the guest room as a gesture of thanks from Sister Veronica.

I'm going to help her with her chutney.

(whimsical music) (Trixie scoffs) - Roger Noble.

We spoke on the phone.

You must be Miss Higgins.

- (chuckles softly) I'm guilty of many things, I promise you, but not that.

- It's something that I never thought would happen for Nancy.

She has a bit of a romance blossoming and a fella comes into her life.

- Roger, I would say almost instantly falls in love, love at first sight, and is afraid of losing Nancy.

- You know, it takes a little bit of, kind of toing and froing for anything to sort of happen, but I think you can tell that she does fancy him.

- Do you come here often?

- I might be a repeat offender, yes.

- Are you a nun?

- Do I look like nun?

- Nuns are all mod these days.

- There's a fun fair come to Poplar.

- I remember the fair being very exciting because we had a real practical vintage fair set.

It was just so beautiful, and having all the lights and there's kind of food stores and they had real foods.

It was like candy floss and toffee apples and everything and it was just so festive and lovely.

- We've got a very nice mince pie story.

For anybody that doesn't like mince pies, you might want to look away.

- Well, Sister Veronica gets very carried away with the mince pie competition.

She sees that as her moment to shine.

But she gets into the Christmas spirit, absolutely.

Everyone does at Nonnatus.

It's our favorite time of year.

(soft dramatic music) - The juxtaposition of the wonderful family Christmas and, you know, it all being about community and the Christmas spirit.

But as ever, with "Call the Midwife," there's always a darker, more serious tone.

- Homelessness, the darker side, and as you would know with the series, with disease, with things, but they weave in together.

- The two stories, because of all the things that they cover, it felt very Dickensian.

- The landlord tells us you rented this as a fully furnished property.

- Yeah, we did.

But that little footstool is my grandma's.

(melancholic music) - This year, there was a very dangerous infectious disease of influenza known as the Hong Kong flu, and that comes to Poplar.

- Lots of people in Poplar and some of our core members get ill with that, so we're short staffed.

- There's a story of an elderly woman who dies because of a lack of care, really, in the community because she's on her own.

- You get the horror first, but of course, there's a human being in there.

There's a human lying there.

Then you want to know who this human is, why, who they were, why they were alone.

- When there's no flowers, no mourners, what you wonder is, what does life amount to when there's no love at the end of it?

- So in this Christmas episode, there are some escaped convicts.

One of them comes to Poplar.

- Get out.

- No.

I'm a nurse and you are bleeding.

- That's where Cyril and Rosalind's relationship comes together.

There's a spark there, so I think theirs is quite interesting to watch that journey.

- The friendship between Cyril and Rosalind really sort of springboards into something maybe.

- Let's go and retrieve your bike and I'll walk you home.

- There's a problem with Reggie, who is meant to be coming home for Christmas.

And there's a lot going on at their home in Poplar.

- We have a story about Reggie.

- You forgot Reggie's sandwich.

You know he's always starving when he gets off the coach.

- Which is a sad story really, but it has a happy ending.

Maybe it doesn't, um (chuckles).

(gentle music) - Sid and Alma, who are the two people who are very much involved with the fairground, Alma is having a baby.

And she's had a baby in the first half.

When I turn up to check the baby, there appear to be problems.

- Baby is very, very jaundiced, Alma.

- He's much more yellow than he was last night.

- Life doesn't stop for Christmas, - Yeah.

- so not everybody's Christmas is happy, and not everybody watching "Call the Midwife" will be having a happy Christmas.

- No.

- So I think to see that reflected, to actually see that, you know what, sometimes life's tough.

- The heart and soul of the series is, it's not just medicine, it's not just bodies, it's not just social history.

It's people.

♪ O little town of Bethlehem ♪ ♪ How still we see thee lie ♪ - It was so lovely filming the carol concert with the Salvation Army band.

It was such a sort of Christmas treat.

And we had the snow going.

- Wasn't that great, having the band?

Oh, that was amazing.

And they lit it so beautifully.

Those instruments were just amazing.

- I could just stand and listen to them all evening.

I can't sing a lick.

So I'm actually relying on Helen to do all the singing and I'm kind of coming in as like a backing vocals, going (vocalizes).

But I hope they can dub it and put, I don't know, Frank Sinatra's voice over it.

(laughs) (bright festive music)