Call the Midwife star Jenny Agutter is 'amazed' the show is still going

Jenny Agutter is "amazed" 'Call the Midwife' is still going.

The 71-year-old actress, who plays Sister Julienne, has appeared in the BBC drama since it's debut in 2012, and admitted she never thought the programme would run for more than just a few episodes.

Speaking to OK! magazine, she said: "I'm amazed at the fact that I've just completed series 13.

"When you look at that in terms of your life, it’s a lot of time. When I started out, we had six episodes, and I thought that was going to be it. I thought it was a very good mini-series about nuns and midwifes stemming from Jennifer Worth's memoirs and that was lovely.

"It never occurred to me that I would sit so closely to so many people's hearts across different social barriers and groups."

'The Railway Children' star then theorised that the programme had maintained its popularity due to the immensely "imaginative" writing from Heidi Thomas.

She explained: "I think a lot of it has to do with Heidi Thomas' writing, she is imaginative and able to use fact and fiction so well by weaving them together. The things that have happened and the way people have been affected by circumstances.

"On top of that, Heidi delights one with human nature and the peculiarity of people. I think the one thing that makes one survive is imagination, being stirred by certain things, by helping one another – that’s keeping us going."

Jenny previously spoke of how getting older no longer worries her.

She told Good Housekeeping Magazine: "I'm not quite sure how I got here! When I turned 60, it seemed like this milestone that suddenly made a person much older and I thought, 'is it enough of a reward to have a Freedom Pass?' Actually, yes, it was! Now I've got to a point where I think, 'Do you know what? Age really doesn't count – it's just a number.

"When my father was dying, it was very different to when I lost my mother many years earlier. I was much less concerned with making plans and more focused on just being with him – and that was a very good thing.

"Now, it's about turning off the switch every so often. I'll go, 'Okay, you can't plan this out completely. Just do what you have to do."