Miriam Margolyes quits Call the Midwife as she is 'too busy' to star in the hit BBC medical drama

Miriam Margolyes has quit 'Call The Midwife'.

The 83-year-old actress joined the BBC period medical drama as Mother Mildred in 2018 on a sporadic basis but her character has not been seen since 2021 and now an insider has confirmed that she will not be back at all.

A source told the Daily Star's HotTV column: "Miriam loved being part of the show because she absolutely adores it.

"But she is too busy to play Mother Mildred now so there are no plans for her to go back."

The 'Harry Potter' star previously admitted she is quite similar to the formidable Mother Superior and claimed that there was "no acting required" for her to be able to do the part.

She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "There are considerable similarities. The directness Mother Mildred has is mine.

"I'm very like that. Playing her is what I call NAR - no acting required.

"I enjoyed coming back in April to film the Christmas special. We had a great deal of fun, as we always do.

"It's about decent people doing decent things and that's rather rare on TV these days. It's wholesome but that doesn't mean it's dull - it's gripping.

"There's a lot of hate about at the moment, a lot of complaining and anger, which I'm not surprised at.

"But when you see a programme about caring, about love and people looking after each other, it feeds the soul."

Meanwhile, Miriam has been dating Heather Sutherland, 81, since they met while working on a BBC radio drama together in the late 1960s but they have always lived apart and she recently revealed that they have plans to finally move in together.

She told SAGA magazine: “We want to live together now because we haven’t got long left.

“She is 81 and am 83, We don’t know yet how we are going to do that."