Star Jessica Raine made her dramatic departure in 2014 as nurse Jenny Lee on Call the Midwife, but why did she leave the period drama?
In 2014, the BBC and PBS period drama Call the Midwife lost one of its most treasured characters, Jenny Lee. Following an emotional Season 3 finale, actress Jessica Raine's beloved protagonist left her job as a midwife in London to pursue a career in a Marie Curie cancer hospice.
Raine's departure devastated many of the show's fans who weren't ready to see Jenny's arc come to a close. Since the memoirs of Jennifer Worth (née Lee) inspired the television series in the first place, it was difficult to imagine the show going on without Raine's interpretation of her. So, why did Jessica Raine leave Call the Midwife?Jenny Lee was based on nurse and midwife Jennifer Worth, who recounted her work during the 1950s in London's impoverished East End in a series of memoirs: Call the Midwife, Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to The East End. A somewhat-naive young nurse from a sheltered upbringing, Jennifer "Jenny" took a job at Nonnatus House. She did not fully realize at the time the nature and work of the Nuns of the Order of St. Raymond Nonnatus or the levels of poverty in the East End.
The main protagonist during the first three seasons of Call the Midwife, Jenny undertakes many challenges in midwifery and nursing. Additionally, she must tackle the issues that arise while treating a mother and her abusive husband, working in a short-staffed hospital under the orders of a narcissistic surgeon, and delivering a baby with spina bifida. Toward the end of Season 3, after caring for the dying mother of fellow nurse and midwife Camilla "Chummy" Noakes (Miranda Hart), Jenny decides to change careers and takes a position at the Marie Curie Hospice, Hampstead.
Around the same time, she meets her future husband, Phillip Worth, and pursues a prosperous and fulfilling marriage with him. English film legend Vanessa Redgrave subsequently provided Jenny's narration on the series, even after the departure of Jenny's character. Though Jenny Lee does not return to Call the Midwife after her departure, she is always there in spirit through Redgrave's narrative reflections.
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