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Jessica Raine may look like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth as Call The Midwife’s main character Jenny Lee, but there’s a reason why the show’s writer Heidi Thomas says there’s something of the ‘iron lily’ about her.
She’s beautiful, of course. She’s serious and understated, too, but naturally funny and clever.
She insists she’s far less prim than middle-class midwife Jenny. But there’s a steeliness to her look â€" and a definite pout â€" when she’s trying to make a point. Just as, one imagines, the real Jenny Lee would have had.
Not so prim: Jessica insists she's far less prim than middle-class midwife Jenny
And when it comes to feeling like a fish out of water, as Jenny does among the extreme poverty of the late 1950s East End in the show, Jessica now knows exactly what it’s like.
‘I have a lot of empathy with Jenny because she was an innocent thrown into that world,’ she says. After years of low-key but acclaimed roles on the West End stage, Jessica, 30, has found herself the star of the biggest BBC drama for a decade.
‘Getting this part was a bit intimidating and the success of the show has definitely changed my life a bit. I can’t deny it. Being recognised is weird.’ She shakes her head.
‘It’s not unpleasant, but people look at you for a long time trying to work out how they know you. I do that when I see famous people too. It’s most difficult in ladies’ loos because as you’re all waiting people start staring at you.
‘Once I was on the train and t here was this woman who was acting a bit strange; she was shuffling weirdly. I moved and then she moved and I thought, “Oh God, a crazy person.†But then she started talking and it turned out she was a trainee midwife and she was incredibly excited about the show.
'Most people are; whenever they talk to me they’re so nice about it. And that’s lovely. It’s quite difficult these days to find a really unique television drama and we’ve done it. I’m so proud of it.’
Jessica first read the original books by Jennifer Worth, based on her own experiences of working as a midwife in Poplar, east London, in the 50s, two years before the show was made.
Jessica was living in the East End at the time and had become interested in its history, and her mother told her she should read the trilogy. The stories so lovingly told are not just about mothers and babies; they’re about a very specific time which s eems both recent and incredibly distant.
‘I loved the books immediately both for their stories and also the history in them,’ she says. ‘It’s an undocumented time. For the second series we’re entering 1958 and in a few years the Pill will come in and women will be in control of their lives in a way they’ve never been before, when they had baby after baby after baby.
Original story: Jessica first read the original books by Jennifer Worth, based on her own experiences of working as a midwife in Poplar, east London, in the 50s, two years before the show was made
‘And of course, there are these midwives with bicycles helping to deliver all these children. For this series we also introduce a maternity home for women so poor their homes aren’t fit to give birth in â€" it’s the start of the hospital maternity unit.
'We also have gas and air as pain relief, which all the women want to try. It seems so distant, but then there’s also so much stuff you recognise; the magazines, the foods and it makes you realise the world really hasn’t changed so much since then.
'All the stuff in the kitchen really reminds me of my gran’s kitchen and there was this outfit I wore recently that really reminded me of her.
'I sent a picture of it to my dad and he was shocked at how much I looked like her. She isn’t with us any more and when I come on set sometimes I’m a bit sad because I know she would have loved the show.’
Jessica grew up on her father’s farm in Hay-on-Wye in Herefordshire. Her mother had trained to be a dancer, and as a girl Jessica knew she wanted to be an actress but there was no drama at her school; it wasn’t until she did theatre studies at sixth-form college that she was able to indulge her passion.
‘I knew I wanted to act but I didn’t tell anyone as it seemed a silly idea,’ she says. She failed to get into RADA at her first attempt but went travelling for a year and tried again â€" and was then welcomed with open arms.
Until Midwife came calling, she was best known for playing surly teenagers in serious plays including a rebellious Goth in Harper Regan and a druggie 16-year-old in Gethsemane, both at London’s National Theatre. So no one was more surprised than Jessica herself when she got the role of Jenny.
‘I suppose I had an advantage because I’d read the books,’ she says. ‘But I was also real ly drawn to this character â€" even if it was very different from other roles I’ve played.
'There’s the nostalgia there, but the stories are quite dark and I love anything with a bit of darkness. I can become very emotional when I watch the show. It’s not necessarily the births that make me cry but the stories we’re telling.’
Jessica never met the real Jenny, who died of cancer the day before Jessica was officially signed up, but she has done her best to stay true to the character. ‘I never forget she was a real person,’ she says.
Broody: For the second series Jessica says she feels more 'instinctive' about her Jenny and it beginning to get broody
‘I never had the chance to meet her so I’ve had to create something away from her but I’ve talked with Heidi and our producer Pippa who knew her. Her family have been on set and that was really lovely.’
Tears spring to her eyes as she recalls their last visit. ‘It’s still very raw because she’s only been gone for about a year so I feel quite sensitive about it all,’ she says. ‘Her family were really lovely and they said, “Thank you†to me. A thank you is a huge thing.’
For the second series Jessica says she feels more ‘instinctive’ about her Jenny. ‘I put on the pointy bra and underwear that sucks you in and it all helps with the character,’ she says.
‘I then find the accent â€" I’m not particularly posh â€" and together with the whole way of standing and speaking I feel like Jenny Lee.’ She does admit, however, that she can get frustrated with Jenny’s primn ess. ‘I think I’m more laid-back,’ says Jessica. ‘And I certainly swear a lot more.’
But she says she’s learned a lot from the character she plays so effortlessly. ‘There’s a level of understanding and empathy that has bled into my life,’ she says. ‘One can be too quick to judge â€" and I’ve reined that in a bit. It’s a lovely quality to stand back and understand where someone is coming from.’
But the real joy of the job is all the babies. Jessica, who lives with her actor boyfriend of three years Tom Goodman-Hill, reveals that when she’s bored during filming she’ll search out the babies to play with them, and admits they can have quite an effect on her.
‘I love having them on set. Sometimes they make me broody; they’re so cute and tiny that I go a bit gooey. But when there are bodily function disasters I don’t feel so keen. I’m still not sure I could preside over a birth, b ut I’ve learnt a lot.
 I’m still not sure I could preside over a birth, but I’ve learnt a lot
'My cousin is pregnant and we had lunch the other day. I started to feel her bump in a very professional way and she said, “What are you doing?†but I was too busy trying to work out where the head was.’
A family might have to wait as she’s concentrating on her career after the success of the show. There are plans for at least one more series of Call The Midwife, and while Jessica remains central to it she also knows it’s important not to be typecast.
Since filming on series two finished she’s been busy auditioning and she’s already managed to fit in an appearance in an upcoming episode of Doctor Who.
‘That was amazing,’ she says of meeting The Doctor. ‘And very different from this. I had to scream into a wind machine and there was strobe lighting and my character’s in the 1970s so I had this brown ensemble. I’m so proud of Call The Midwife, but it’s not all I want to do.’
Call The Midwife is on tomorrow at 8pm on BBC1.
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