Nurses/Midwife's

The Nurse's and Midwife's at Nonnatus House

The Midwives who have lived at Nonnatus House :- Jenny Lee, Trixie Franklin, Cynthia Miller, Chummy, Phyliss Crane, Barbara Gilbert, Patsy Mount, Shelagh Turner, Delia, Lucille Anderson, Nancy Corrigan, Valerie Dyer and new trainee nurses Joyce Highland and Rosalind Clifford

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Nurse Jenny Lee

Nurse Jenny Lee arrives at Nonnatus House in 1957, at the age of 22, completely unaware of the world she is about to enter Believing she’s accepted a job with a small private hospital, it comes as somewhat of a surprise to Jenny to find she’s moving into a convent. Furthermore, the deprivation of the East End is a huge culture shock for the young woman who has enjoyed a privileged upbringing in the Home Counties, and spent time in Paris before training as a nurse. However, although initially shocked by the conditions in which her patients live, Jenny comes to accept the material limitations of the world in which she works, and to love the people who must live there.
Jessica Raine who plays Jenny says about her character: “She’s young, she’s 22, and she sees all these amazing life stories happening in front of her. She’s constantly learning and re-evaluating her own way of seeing the world. I really like that, I like people who can change their opinions and she does that during the course of the series.”

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Nurse / Sister Cynthia Miller - Bryony Hannah

Nurse Cynthia Miller, is also a resident at Nonnatus House when Jenny appears.
Caring, stoical, and intelligent, she finds her midwifery work both challenging and rewarding, a highly desirable alternative to the dull domesticity that would otherwise be her only option. Quiet and sensitive, and also in her early twenties, Cynthia becomes Jenny’s confidante and life-long friend.
Bryony Hannah who plays Cynthia Miller says about her character: “She’s not terribly experienced as a midwife, she’s still learning but she’s very conscientious and really wants to do well. She puts everything into it. She’s
quite shy but she grows through the series and becomes much better friends with Jenny as it goes on.”
Cynthia leaves Nonnatus on New Year's Eve 1959 to become a postulant at the Mother House in Chichester; Returning to Nonnatus as Sister Mary Cynthia.

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Nurse Trixie Franklin - Helen George

Nurse Trixie Franklin is a bright, glamorous girl in her mid-twenties who is already living and working at Nonnatus House when Jenny arrives.
All fully-fashioned nylons and lush red lipstick, Trixie loves jazz and dancing, smokes Sobranie cigarettes and, it’s fair to say, is a bit of a flirt. She has a much more outgoing disposition than Jenny, but the two share the
sense of adventure in their work and become firm pals.
Trixie has recently been promoted to 'Acting Sister' at the Tuesday Ante-natal and Baby clinic. Her professional success is mirrored by her blossoming love life and she is delighted when Poplar’s dashing young vicar Tom Hereward asks her to be his fiancé. However the relationshipo breaks up and Trixie loses control of her 'drinking' habits and is becoming an Alcholic.
In Series 5 Trixie regains control over her drinking habit and regulary attend AA meetings and starts her own Keep fit classes.

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Chummy - Miranda Hart

Camilla Cholomondely-Browne, otherwise known as Chummy, is the daughter of a prominent family who has found her way into nursing and midwifery by a circuitous route.
Eternally good-humoured and monumentally kind, Chummy is crippled by lack of self-confidence. Her great height and physical clumsiness plays its part, but a loveless childhood spent in boarding schools has made the greater impact. An adept midwife, she is hampered by acute shyness and - perhaps more crucially – a complete inability to ride a bike. Chummy soon wins the hearts of her colleagues, but her struggle for self-belief will threaten to capsize her.
Miranda Hart who plays Chummy says about her character: “She comes from a very upper class background and she has decided that her calling from God is to be a midwife so she comes to the east end to join Nonnatus House much to the horror of her viceroy father and her upper crust mother.”

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Nurse Barbara Gilbert - Charlotte Ritchie

Barbara Gilbert is in her early twenties and has recently qualified as a nurse and midwife when she arrives at Nonnatus at the start of the 1960s. She is the daughter of a Canon and an immediate hit with the nuns and midwives, who warm to her enthusiasm and naivety. Although middle class, she is not unaccustomed to poverty being brought up in Liverpool where, through her father's work, she was exposed to some of the most impoverished situations. For her young years, she has quite an old head on her shoulders. She soon becomes good friends with Patsy and Trixie.
Barbara gets drunk her first night at Nonnatus and is forever feeling the need to redeem herself to the nuns, and midwives. She shares a room with Nurse Crane, another new arrival, much to her horror and proves herself a dab hand at sewing. Barbara acts with her heart before her head at times, always striving to support those most in need, despite the barriers she faces.

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District Nurse/Midwife Phyliss Crane - Linda Bassett

A no-nonsense nurse hailing from Leeds, she's dedicated to midwifery.
Phyllis is a private district nurse and midwife, arriving in 1960 as temporary cover for Sister Evangelina who is on sick-leave.
She is incredibly forceful and not one to confirm to society's expectations. She promptly distinguishes herself at Nonnatus House by arriving in a Morris Minor and announcing her vegetarianism.
Phyllis is the chalk to Sister Evangelina's cheese, and they clash immediately. She shares a room with, the much younger midwife, Barbara, much to Barbara’s horror.

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Emerald Fennell - Nurse Patsy Mount

Patsy is mid twenties, tall, elegant and favours slightly tailored clothes. She joins Nonnatus House to help cover the work load in Jenny's absence.
Patsy has boundless energy, and is prodigiously strong, never blinking in the face of hard work or physical privation. Her robust common sense and frank manner prove rather a tonic at a time when Nonnatus House is feeling overworked.
However, despite her no-nonsense approach she is slightly more guarded than she first appears, and is not entirely easy to get to know.
Patsy and Trixie become room mates and enjoy many a late night drink and a cigarette.
In series four Patsy falls in love with Delia.

Patsy and Delia

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Delia - Kate Lamb

In Call The Midwife Lamb plays Delia, a nurse and St John Ambulance volunteer, Her storyline has caught the attention of fans as Delia is a love interest for Nurse Patsy, played by Emerald Fennell. They grow a lot closer as the series goes on, as friends and as girlfriends. But it has its own frustrations because they can’t be open about that and they're both very much still hiding, sort of from themselves as well.

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Shelagh Turner - Laura Main

In Series two, Sister Bernadette (as Shelagh was then known) questioned her chosen vocation. After recovering from tuberculosis, she made the intrepid decision to leave the order of St Raymond Nonnatus in order to marry Dr Turner. Series three saw her hopes for having a child dashed when she received the devastating diagnosis of infertility. But she went on to adopt a daughter, baby Angela, with Dr Turner at the end of the series.
Series four sees Shelagh face the challenge of balancing her personal and professional life. Deciding to take a more active role in the clinic, she becomes Dr Turner’s receptionist.
In series Three, Shelagh continues to work in a part time capacity at the Mother and Baby clinic as well as enjoying family life with Dr Turner and Timothy.

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Valerie Dyer - Jennifer Kirby

Valerie Dyer is a funny, feisty girl, who comes from old Poplar stock – her family have lived near the docks for almost a hundred years. Seeking to widen her horizons and have an adventure, Valerie joined the Queen Alexandra's Nursing Corps as soon as she qualified as a nurse.
She served with the army in Hong Kong and more recently Germany. Having satisfied her wanderlust, Valerie left the forces and come home to Britain. Well at least that's what she's been telling people. The truth of the matter is that she actually left under a bit of a cloud but is playing her cards very close to her chest for now.
After a stint working in her Aunt's pub, pulling pints for the Dockers, Valerie was keen to find work as a nurse but faced rejection, which she took on the chin, putting it down to snobbery within the nursing profession. Her quick thinking at the scene of an explosion got her noticed by Sister Julienne and she joined the team at Nonnatus House.

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Nurse Lucille Anderson - Leonie Elliott

With her arrival in the first episode of series seven, Lucille – played by Leonie Elliott – became the first West Indian midwife to feature as a regular character in BBC drama. Before she arrived in Poplar and put on her nurse’s uniform, actress Leonie Elliott was best known for her role in Black Mirror episode Hated in the Nation, where she played Fiona. She has also recently been in Casualty, Boogie Man and Damned, and in 2015 she played Cherry Patterson in the Lenny Henry comedy drama Danny and the Human Zoo.