(bright festive music) - This is probably one of the most Christmassy Christmas specials we've ever done.

- I love the Christmas episodes.

They're always full of joy and celebration, and drama is usually always just around the corner.

- Fred, have you seen the time?

We're gonna miss the plane!

- The party was running late, and I didn't wanna disappoint the kiddies.

- Get in the cab.

You can change out of your costume on the way.

- South Africa, the Outer Hebrides, and now Hong Kong.

- God, Hong Kong.

What a fantastic opportunity that was.

It was just visceral and amazing to do.

- It's a really fun Christmas special, because you've got two teams, effectively.

We've got the people that go to Hong Kong, mainly the nuns, and then the nurses and midwives are left at home alone without the grown-ups.

(uplifting orchestral music) - We are in Hong Kong for an extremely exciting reason, which is that, you may have forgotten, but Violet has two grown-up sons.

She and Fred are going to visit her son Derek, who is in the Hong Kong police force, so she's very excited about going to see Derek.

- There's a very personal dimension to the Turners with Hong Kong through May.

There's a history.

Although they've never been there, there's a history with Hong Kong there.

Those worlds collide.

It's very urgent, it's very dangerous, and it involves venturing into Hong Kong's darker side at the time, and gangsterism was growing at that time.

It was a particular problem in that particular period.

- Sometimes you lose people.

Sometimes they're stolen.

- So this Christmas episode, Nurse Crane and Sister Veronica find, in Hong Kong, a little baby, a newborn baby, who's been left in a cardboard box, and it's literally hours having been born.

(baby wailing) - Oh no.

No.

A baby, left to be found.

- Hong Kong was extraordinary to film in.

Absolutely amazing.

Really, really a real eye opener.

I've never been that far east.

- Filming there was very hot, indeed.

We all got out there, and it is like walking out into a sauna.

- The first day, I was thinking, oh my goodness, 'cause you were drenched in sweat, but you do acclimatize.

- And the locations that we worked in were fascinating.

I mean, we were in some lovely old buildings.

- And because it was set in 1971, we got to see the historical places.

When we're at the orphanage, filming there was very beautiful.

There's a lot of preserved, beautiful buildings, and you get a feel of the old Hong Kong.

- And then the next was a really iconic piece for Hong Kong, which is the Star Ferry, they call it, and it's this old ferry that goes between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, and there we were, Cliff and I, out filming a scene there.

I was excited about that way before we started filming, and I thought, yeah, we're gonna film on the Star Ferry, we're gonna film on a ferry, and it was a really, it fulfilled everything that we'd hoped for, and me and him just had such a great day.

- The rickshaws, I think we actually had those made.

- 'Cause they don't have them anymore.

I mean, they got rid of them years ago, so production got them built, and these guys were all dressed up as rickshaw drivers, and they were all charging round, and I think they had a really good day, too.

We all had a laugh.

- [Stephen] And so it was a gorgeous, frantic, hilarious, moving two weeks.

- And the people were lovely.

The crew were smashing, so kind, and I found that in general, actually, as an older woman, how kind people were to me.

- The people were absolutely fantastic and really helped us, and the crew were fabulous.

- What I love about the big Christmas two-parter is it also doesn't leave Poplar, and when some of these important people go away, it's the stuff that happens at home which is fabulous.

(uplifting orchestral music) - I get to take part in a Christmas parade with these incredible costumes, probably my favorite costume I've ever worn, which is an angel costume.

- And the costumes that Geoffrey's made looked incredible, obviously.

- [Helen] A beautiful white coat with a fur trim and angel wings coming out the back, and then these really cool '70s glittery stars, so for me, it was a lot of fun dressing up.

- Me, Trixie and Rosalind all dressed as Christmas angels, and we got to be waving in the parade.

It was very, very Christmassy.

- We had to have a stunt coordinator, because it was technically a stunt, and we were sort of tied to the float with these invisible ropes so that we could do sort of angel acting, so it felt like "Mission: Impossible."

- If you find a walking stick lying on the ground, you're likely to find its owner nearby and lying in a similar position.

- Geoffrey and Trixie stumble across a mysterious and suffering figure in the street, and it's someone that he knows.

- Terribly sorry.

I seem to have rather overstretched myself.

- We welcome Mr.

Fisher back to his childhood home, and his home is the flat that Cyril is renting, and so this letter comes to Cyril, saying that he would love to stay here, because he's terminally ill, and he would love to compensate me for it.

It's a story of reminiscence and appreciating your life, which is why Cyril has a kind of reflection on it on his own and what it means for the future and who you spend time with.

- There's two mums-to-be who are Irish travelers, and they're living in a camp in Poplar.

Sister Catherine, along with Joyce, get enlisted to go and help them out.

Queenie, she had a stillbirth that happened before.

- I need skilled help.

- If you want it, we'll make sure you get it.

- I do want it.

- And so Sister Catherine is actually really pivotal in supporting her and helping her process that grief that she's been through, and now she's pregnant again.

It's actually a really heart-rending story, but woven in with all the Christmas magic of the rest of the episode.

(bright soulful music) - There's a whole little party that happens, which I think people are gonna love, because there's a nice little, there's lots of little surprises in that party.

- All the grown-ups leave and go away, and we get to have a wild night of playing sardines and such, and I think you get to see Rosalind kind of let her hair down a bit, which is really nice to see the characters get to kind of play around in that different space without the nuns present.

- And then next-day surprises as well.

Post-party, people wake up, forgot what they did the night before.

It's very on brand for Christmas.

- And Trixie, for once, isn't part of the party, which was so frustrating, but she has to come home and clean it all up after a hard night's work.

Rotters.

(uplifting orchestral music) I think a "Call the Midwife" Christmas special would not be the same if one didn't shed a tear at some point, but of course, there will be a beautiful, uplifting Christmas cheer.

(serene orchestral music)