The new series of Call the Midwife hit screens last month as the BBC period drama moves into a new era welcoming the 1970s, a exciting new storylines. Jenny Agutter is adored by viewers for her heart-warming portrayal as Sister Julienne on the much-loved show.
The 72-year-old actress has remained a fan favourite since the very first episode of the BBC period drama aired in 2012. Sister Julienne is stern but gentle, empathetic but a force to be reckoned with, and as if often the voice of reason among the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House, plus the wider Poplar community.
But long before Call the Midwife, which is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth and created by Heidi Thomas, was ever launched on television, Jenny was already a famous actress on both the small screen and in films. So let’s take a look inside the life of Sister Julienne star Jenny Agutter.
Jenny was born in Taunton, Somerset on December 20, 1952. As a child, she reportedly spent time living in various places around the world including Singapore, Cyprus, and Kuala Lumpur due to her father, Derek, being a former British Army officer.
Between the ages of 8 and 16, Jenny attended a boarding school called Elmhurst Ballet School, in Birmingham, where she was spotted by a casting agent. Jenny became a child actress when she was 12 years old after starring in East of Sudan in 1964.
In 1968 she appeared in The Railway Children for the first time in the BBC’s adaptation of the famous book. Jenny played Roberta, a role she resumed for the 1970 film version of The Railway Children.
The star made her third appearance in a screen adaptation of the book in 2000 when she starred in an ITV version, this time as the mother. In 2022 she reprised the role in the film The Railway Children Return.
With an incredible, and very successful, acting career spanning more than six decades, Jenny has starred in a very long line of television series and movies including the blockbuster American Werewolf In London, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Walkabout.
Jenny is married to Swedish hotelier Johan Tham after the pair met at an arts festival in Bath, Somerset in 1989.
They got married a year later and welcomed their son Jonathan in December 1990. Her son is now a GP in London.
Jenny has recalled the dramatic real life birth of her son who arrived five weeks early on Christmas Day. The pains mystified Jenny while she was away celebrating with family in Oxfordshire in 1990.
In an interview with Yours Magazine, Jenny recalls his birth saying: “I woke up feeling uncomfortable so I called my obstetrician and he asked me whether I was in labour.
“I said I didn’t know because I hadn’t experienced it before and wasn’t expecting him yet. He said “you’d better come in and I’ll see you.”
Jenny concludes: “I was there all day and my son arrived very late. It was a long day!”
The actress and her husband reportedly split their time between their home in South London and their house in Cornwall.
She said being married was “lovely” and “very grounding”, admitting her marriage continued to flourish through the years.
In 2022, Agutter spoke about her marriage in The Mail, she said: “One of the things about meeting people and forming relationships as an actor is that others have an idea of who you are before they meet you. That’s hard in any relationship, particularly with men.
“When Johan and I met I did not feel he had any sense of who I was at all, but he wanted to find out, and that made a big difference. I’m still finding out about him 31 years on.”
The star got hitched to the hotelier when she was in her late 30s following on from a whirlwind romance, and have been happily married ever since.
Call the Midwife series 14 currently airs every Sunday at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer
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