Yahoo News Call the Midwife was rewritten when Miranda pulled out
Call the Midwife was nearly a very different show this series - all thanks to Miranda Hart.
The comic thrilled fans last year when she revealed she'd be making a comeback to the BBC One medical drama as the beloved nurse Chummy, only to bail just before filming was to start on the Christmas special due to scheduling conflicts.
News: it's with a heavy heart that having shared Chummy's return to CTM, I've not been able to birth (pun) the schedule to make it work. xx
- Miranda Hart (@mermhart) August 18, 2016
Her departure forced a major rewrite of the upcoming Call the Midwife series, as revealed by Heidi Thomas in the latest edition of the Radio Times.
"We were thrilled when Miranda approached us, and I storylined the series for her," Thomas said. "But at relatively short notice she had to withdraw."
Thomas stopped short of revealing just how late into development Miranda dropped out, but did admit: "We were hopeful right up to the end that we could make it work, but we couldn't.
"I just rewrote the series without Miranda in it, which was sad because we would have loved having her in it... She is part of the CTM family. But it wasn't meant to be."
Aside from this radical shifting of the next Call the Midwife storyline, new episodes will also debut Dame Harriet Walter as a replacement for Pam Ferris's Sister Evangelina.
Call the Midwife will return on Sunday (January 22) at 8pm on BBC for its sixth series premiere, kicking off a multi-series commission made by the Beeb back in 2016.
Don't forget to vote for your favourite TV shows in this year's National Television Awards! Shortlist voting closes at 12 midday on Wednesday, January 25.
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