'A wimple does wonders for a woman's cheekbones'

When I ask Jenny Agutter whether she hesitated before taking the role of Sister Julienne in Call The Midwife, the BBC’s surprise hit and love letter to post-war Britain, a wicked smile floats across her face. ‘Maybe, for an instant,’ she replies. ‘But not for the reason you might think. I did wonder if I could play a nun. I found it easier to get behind Tessa in Spooks than I did playing a nun. Tessa is just amoral, in an amoral world, so that’s easy. But let me tell you, I’ve discovered that a wimple does wonders for a girl’s cheekbones – it is rather liberating.’

In fact, in the series, Agutter gives the most humane, twinkling performance as a nun who immerses herself in the messy lives of 1950s Londoners, just as youth culture is exploding, women are going out to work and there’s a sense of freedom in the air. Born in 1952, the year the Queen ascended the throne, Jenny says she loves the way the storylines capture 1950s London.

‘I love the scripts, they are so beautifully written, and I love that sense of optimism and excitement,’ she says.

While she was drawn to the Times They Are A-Changin’ theme of Call The Midwife (which returns later this year), she also reveals that she based her touching portrait of Sister Julienne on vivid memories of a wonderful nun who nursed her mother at Westminster Hospital. ‘She was a matron, and she was extraordinary. Entirely caring, but very matter of fact and very optimistic.’

She talks, too, of being taken aback, but delighted by the public’s response to the series. ‘I hate the idea of the Big Society tag, it just sounds so glib,’ she says. ‘Yet in a way that is what Call The Midwife is about. It’s hard to know when people are going to take something to their hearts.

‘But what is gratifying is that so many different sorts of people, of all ages, have enjoyed it. Some people are looking at it nostalgically, and some people are fascinated by it being a period piece and not knowing how difficult those times were.

‘What we have forgotten is that people fought hard for the things we take for granted today, such as prosperity, the NHS, which was founded after the war, and women’s rights. Now people are being challenged again. I think we need to revisit the idea of community and be responsible for what we have. Downton Abbey is wonderful, but it is about an elite time in our society, which is gone. What we are looking at is the breakdown of those values, and the questions that come with that, which is exciting.’

Jenny with some of the Sisters in Call The Midwife

Dressed in Catherine Walker Couture for our Diamond Jubilee fashion shoot (to be published in next week’s edition), Jenny is funny, practical and a very down-to-earth star. She is actively involved in her own community in south London, where she has lived since returning from Hollywood, and talks warmly about a recent encounter with a fan who told her that he loved her in An American Werewolf In London and invited her to see a project with young Afro-Caribbean men, teaching them martial arts to get them off the streets.

From sitting through hoodie versions of Shakespeare to dressing in her favourite Missoni coat to give readings in her local church at Christmas, she has that rare ability to communicate with anyone. ‘I meet ordinary people all the time who are doing extraordinary things,’ she says. ‘There’s a theatre group for children that has been going for 25 years. It was started by the most amazing woman who goes into the local estates and opens the eyes of children to the power of music, dance and drama, giving them something else to focus on. The children are given opportunities and taught discipline and respect, often for the first time in their lives. These are things that used to be taught in schools, but we have lost that now.’

In many ways, Midwife mirrors Agutter’s own, rather exciting and unconventional life. She paints a thrilling picture of being discovered, aged 11, at Elmhurst Ballet School, where she won a coveted role in the Walt Disney film, Ballerina. ‘The school was very strict about the parts I went up for,’ she says. ‘It had to be something good and worthwhile.

‘Then, when I had three films out in a row, I was allowed to go to London, under the supervision of my agent, to conduct interviews with journalists. I was taken for tea at The Ritz, which was so exciting and fun to a 16-year-old girl, and then going off to a castle to be photographed by Norman Parkinson in something wild and theatrical by Zandra Rhodes.’

As the interview draws to a close, Jenny mentions that she will be 60 later this year. She is looking forward to it and it comes as no surprise that she isn’t afraid of growing old. In fact she embraces it, and in doing so stays forever young. Who knows, maybe she will be asked to play another remarkable Englishwoman one day soon – and give Dame Helen Mirren a few days off.

See Jenny Agutter in our fabulous, Jubilee-themed fashion feature in next week’s double collector’s issue of The Lady.

Top: Jenny wears:

Asymmetric gown, price on application, by Catherine Walker: 020- 7352 4626, www.catherinewalker.com

Cape, price on application, by Tammam: 020-7617 7512, www.tammam.co.uk

Pair of cuffs, £129 each; necklace, £129, all by Konplott: www.konplott.com

Hair ornament, from a selection, by Erickson Beamon: 020-7259 0202, www.ericksonbeamon.com

Jewelled apple clutch, £895, by Anya Hindmarch: 020-7501 0177, www.anyahindmarch.com

Tulle fabric, price on application, MacCulloch & Wallis: 020-7629 0311, www.maccullochwallis.co.uk

Photography by Mike Owen. Make-up by Vickie Ellis, using Dermalogica. Hair by Heather Manson. With thanks to English Heritage, The Rangers House, Blackheath, London SE10: www.english-heritage.org.uk