BBCSister Margaret-Angela said the producers of Call the Midwife would call or email her "constantly" for advice on the showAfter a dramatic end to the 15th series of Call the Midwife and with work beginning on a prequel to the TV drama, one of the nuns who inspired the series has been praising its attention to detail.
The 15th series came to an end last month, with the temporary closure of Nonnatus House while its inhabitants "discern our next steps".
Exploring the lives and work of a group of midwives in London's East End, the show features the fictional Order of St. Raymond Nonnatus - which is based on the real life Anglican community of St John the Divine, which in 1976 moved to the West Midlands.
Sister Margaret-Angela, who started out as a midwife in Poplar, said acting as a consultant for the programme was an experience she "never expected to have".
"They've done a very good job" she enthused. "They're very careful to get the details right - that's been most impressive."
BBC/Neal Street Productions/Nicky JohnstonCall the Midwife is one of the BBC's most popular TV dramasSister Margaret-Angela, said she had vivid memories of life in the East End, where she started out working for the church before realising her true calling.
She said she lived near the sisters of St John the Divine and used to see them cycling around on their district rounds.
One day she asked one of the sisters to go with her to visit an elderly lady.
"It was squalid, it was really squalid" she remembered. "You had to suck a peppermint to go into the house, a really strong peppermint.
"In the middle of this I suddenly saw myself in a blue habit".
Sister Margaret-Angela (right-hand picture, on the right) said she had strong memories of her work in the communityIn 1976, the community decided to move the location of its mother house to the Midlands.
Sister Margaret-Angela described their then Reverend Mother disappearing for a day to look at a house in Alum Rock.
"We said 'oh no, not Birmingham'," she laughed. "But once we were here it just felt right".
BBC/Neal Street Productions/Luke RossThe 15th series of Call the Midwife ended last monthCall the Midwife's links to the West Midlands do not end there.
The TV series was originally based on a book of the same name, by Jennifer Worth, who worked as a midwife with the sisters in Poplar and is played by Jessica Raine in seasons one to three.
In a 2007 interview with BBC CWR, before her death in 2011, Worth revealed that, at the age of 17, she had also worked as a nurse at the old Workhouse Hospital in Coventry and also the Warwick Infirmary.
Medical historian Dr John Wilmot explained she was probably referring to Gulson Hospital, now closed, and Warwick Hospital, and that she may have held the training position of a nursing cadet.
Working in healthcare in the 1950s was "in some ways very different", he said. "Much more hierarchical, strict uniforms; the ward sister's word was law."
The sisters relocated to this house in Alum Rock, Birmingham, in 1976, later moving to Marston GreenSister Margaret-Angela remembered Worth who, she said, had a beautiful singing voice.
"She had a delightful husband" she recalled. "When she wrote the book, she dictated it to him and he typed it all".
Since Call the Midwife took off on TV, she said their production team had been in touch "constantly".
"They would ring up or email and say 'what do we do here' and 'what do you wear there','" she smiled.
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation TrustThe writer of the book the show is based on, Jennier Worth, worked in Warwick before she wrote itThree of the sisters have been to visit the Call the Midwife set, she remembered, including one occasion "down on the edge of Surrey" when she met actor Miriam Margolyes.
"She said 'do I call you Sister Margaret or Margaret?' and I said 'you can call me Margaret' and she said 'well in that case you can call me Miriam'," she chuckled.
The community of St John the Divine is dwindling now but Sister Margaret-Angela saw their involvement in Call the Midwife as something that would endure.
"We've bought all the DVDs so it'll be in our archives" she said. "It's part of the community history now".
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