The 1969 scandal that would depart the Call the Midwife nuns blushing: How this 12 months’s Christmas particular is about the identical 12 months narrator Dame Vanessa Redgrave stirred up a media frenzy by having a child together with her Italian movie lover out of wedlock
The hit BBC series Call the Midwife is known for its close attention to historical detail – and this year’s Christmas special, set in 1969, was no exception.
There were passing references to the Apollo 11 moon landings in July that year, and to the Blue Peter appeal which asked for scrap metal donations from old toy cars.
But there is one headline-grabbing news story it failed to mention – which would no doubt have brought some blushes to the nuns of Nonnatus House.
For Dame Vanessa Redgrave, who narrates the enduringly popular series, gave birth to a baby out of wedlock in 1969, a revelation which caused a media frenzy.
Dame Vanessa, now 87, was one of Britain’s biggest stars at the time and her decision to have a baby with her Italian film star lover, Franco Nero, was considered a scandal that provoked widespread debate about the nation’s morals.
One of Britain’s biggest selling titles, the Daily Mirror left readers in no doubt about Ms Redgrave’s marital status – and its opinion of it – when it ran a picture of the couple and their new baby.
‘A fine family portrait,’ it wrote. ‘Yet by some standards they are not a family at all. For Vanessa – who has two young daughters by her former husband film director Tony Richardson – is not married to 28-year-old Franco. She says she probably never will be. Does it matter?’
Dame Vanessa Redgrave, who narrates the enduringly popular series, gave birth to a baby out of wedlock in 1969, a revelation which caused a media frenzy Picture: Actors Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave at home in Chiswick, London, with their baby son Carlo Gabriel Redgrave Sparanero
Dame Vanessa, now 87, pictured, was one of Britain’s biggest stars at the time and her decision to have a baby with her Italian film star lover, Franco Nero, pictured, was considered a scandal that provoked widespread debate about the nation’s morals
British actress Vanessa Redgrave and her husband italian actor Franco Nero
Other prominent figures were aghast when the star revealed she had no plans to marry the father. Sir David Llewellyn, a former Tory MP, took aim at the star in a newspaper article on 7 October 1969, headlined: ‘It may be alright for Vanessa…But babies need fathers’ .
The arrival of Carlo Gabriel, who was delivered by two NHS midwives and who weighed in at just over seven pounds, would go unremarked upon today.
But one irate male reader who agreed with Sir David wrote to the newspaper to describe the star as ‘selfish and irresponsible’.
Dame Vanessa, then 32, was dubbed ‘Britain’s most celebrated unmarried mother’, with the Liverpool Daily Post asking what the nation should make of her ‘unashamed motherhood’.
‘Is it a further disturbing symptom of crumbling moral values in our society or a step towards a more human attitude?’ the paper asked.
The star herself made no apologies and refused to bow to societal pressure. In April 1969, she told another national newspaper she did not think she would marry the father of her child.
She said: ‘No, I love the man very much. This is where one is extraordinarily lucky. I don’t live in a society where every kind of pressure would be brought upon me and my life would be made miserable.’
Redgrave and Nero met when they were co-stars in the big screen adaptation of the musical Camelot, with Redgrave as Guinevere alongside Richard Harris’s King Arthur. Nero played Sir Lancelot.
The hit BBC series Call the Midwife is known for its close attention to historical detail – and this year’s Christmas special, set in 1969, was no exception
Call The Midwife Christmas special, this year’s festive trip to 1960s east London will consist of two 60-minute episodes, rather than one 90-minute episode, complete with a Christmas cliffhanger
Call the Midwife – the 13th festive special of the show which featured episodes on Christmas Day and Boxing Day on BBC
At the time she was married to Richardson, a film director and the father of her daughters Natasha and Joely.
They divorced in 1967 after it emerged he had been having an affair with the French actress Jeanne Moreau.
Redgrave and Nero began a relationship that year, although she remained on friendly terms with her ex-husband.
And despite the naysayers of 1969, they are still a couple today – and finally married in 2006.
Yet viewers of Call the Midwife – the 13th festive special of the show which featured episodes on Christmas Day and Boxing Day – will be none the wiser about this particular historical detail
