Stephen McGann says Call the Midwife's Christmas special is 'extraordinary'

\'Call the Midwife\'s Christmas special has been written - but the cast still don\'t know when filming will start.

Stephen McGann, who plays Dr Patrick Turner in the period drama series, has revealed the festive special "should be extraordinary", although he\'s still waiting to discover when they can head to the set amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Asked about the Christmas special, the 57-year-old actor - whose wife, Heidi Thomas, created the show - said: "Why do I know? Because I live with the boss who writes it ... apparently, it\'s fantastic."

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Stephen also revealed that the episode will have a "very, very special theme".

He told \'This Morning\': "It\'s going to be in Poplar, it\'s not going to be overseas, and it has a very, very special theme which I can\'t go into, but I can tell you now it should be extraordinary."

Stephen subsequently discussed the challenge of trying to shoot \'Call the Midwife\' amid the pandemic.

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The actor admitted that the risks differ from person to person, meaning things must be "absolutely right" before the cast return to the set.

He said: "We have not just different ages of crew, but also people like [84-year-old actress] Judy Parfitt; young children, so we have a lot of different people of many different ages [to look out for].

"We\'ve got to make sure that we get everything absolutely right for the way we film \'Call the Midwife\'.

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"All those [safety] processes, I\'ve been assured, are going on already - they\'re already in pre-production for it."