Call The Midwife fans unable to stop sobbing after ‘beautiful’ final episode

RIP Sister Monica Joan – as one viewer insisted: “I’m in denial and I’m okay with that. She’s not dead she’s just eating a cake somewhere.”

Sister Monica Joan

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It was goodbye to Sister Monica Joan on Call The Midwife tonight(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Neal Street / Olly Courtney)

Call The Midwife fans have been left in floods of tears after tonight’s episode – calling the death of Sister Monica Joan “the end of an era”. Fans were shocked when Pam Ferris’ character Sister Evangelina – who bowed out of the show back in series five – turned up to help bring her into the next life.

One viewers summed up the thoughts of many watching on BBC One tonight, writing: “Sister Evangelina coming to help Sister Monica Joan die, I am SICK from crying.” The drama will now take a break from screens for a period of around two years for the making of a prequel series which is set during the war and for a movie, based in Australia.

Judy Parfitt in Call The Midwife

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Judy Parfitt’s final scenes in Call The Midwife aired on Sunday(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Neal Street / Olly Courtney)

One fan wrote: “Im bawling, im actually bawling so hard.” Another agreed: “Dayyyyyummm man….. I properly can’t cope here.” Many praised the BBC drama for the emotional send off, with one posting: “Sister Monica Joan’s death was beautiful. The show won’t be the same without her.”

Another fan agreed: “What a wonderful way for sister Monica Joan to go with all other sisters of past” while one other insisted: “I’m in denial and I’m okay with that. She’s not dead she’s just eating a cake somewhere.”

However, Sister Evangelina, Sister Monica Joan and Sister Julienne are set to return to screens – albeit with a new cast, which has not yet been announced. A three-part prequel of Call the Midwife, featuring younger versions of is expected to launch on Christmas Day.

The prequel will be set in Second World War London with series creator Heidi Thomas telling the Radio Times : “[She] actually isn’t that young when we did the maths, but she’s very much in her prime.”

She added: “It’s a world where women are not in charge when war breaks out, but very rapidly, they are in charge of everything because the men are called away, either to Home Front-based war work or they go overseas. So you’ll see a lot of women coming into their own… it’s a programme that is going to be about strong women above all else.”

Find more about Inside the filming of Call the Midwife's emotional final episode with cast and crew in tears

There will also be a movie version set in 1972 and featuring the regular cast and almost certainly set in Australia. However, it’s not yet known when it will be released.