Call the Midwife star lands lead role in huge 10-part BBC Jane Austen drama
The actress best known for playing Sister Frances will lead the cast of the major BBC series airing next year
Call the Midwife favourite Ella Broccoleri has landed the lead role in BBC1 's upcoming Jane Austen drama The Other Bennett Sister. Ella, 35, played kindly nun Sister Frances in the hit series for four years from 2019, when she was written out suddenly after deciding to leave to pursue other roles.
In the plot she was knocked off her bike in the snow during a birth emergency in the 2022 Christmas special, suffering a shoulder injury. Fans were gutted when she was then sent to the Mother House to recuperate, and never returned to Poplar. One declared at the time: 'If Sister Frances leaves I swear to God I'll sue someone at Call the Midwife."
As well as Sister Frances, Ella has also played the role of a young nun in historical drama, The Last Kingdom. And the actress also donned a habit for a third time as she appeared alongside Olivia Colman in Paddington in Peru.
Now the actress has been cast as Mary Bennet, sister of Pride and Prejudice's lead character Elizabeth and she is also starring in upcoming ITV royal drama The Lady.
The Other Bennet Siste r is a fresh spin around the ballroom for one of Jane Austen 's most unassuming characters: Mary Bennet – the seemingly unremarkable and overlooked middle sister in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Awkward, anxious, preachy, full of fact and a terrible singer, Mary is overlooked by her mother and seems destined to have an empty dance card for the rest of her life - until she takes matters into her own hands.
The Other Bennet Sister, a 10-parter to air next year from production company Bad Wolf, gives Mary Bennet the epic love story nobody predicted for her. It takes her from her family home in Meryton to the soirees of Regency London and the peaks and vales of the Lake District - all in search of independence, romance and, most elusive of all, self-love and acceptance.
Writer Sarah Quintrell says: "I'm thrilled to be telling the story of Mary - the other Bennet sister - exploring what it is to come of age when you're the odd one out. It's a joy to be adapting Janice Hadlow's brilliant take on such a beloved classic and to have found our home at the BBC.'
Saying she herself had been an 'awkward, anxious' teen, she added: 'I grew up watching the BBC's wonderful Austen adaptations. It's the stuff every writer dreams of and I can't wait to bring this beautiful story to screen - not least, for all the Marys out there.'
BBC drama boss Lindsay Salt said: "The BBC's Pride and Prejudice will forever be a classic moment in television history, and it's incredibly exciting to return to Jane Austen's irresistible world and go even further than before - this time in the footsteps of The Other Bennet Sister, Mary. We fell in love with Sarah's adaptation because it's a true underdog story packed full of heart, wit and charm, and a chance to explore Austen in a playful, original and heartfelt way.'
Last year Ella appeared in ITV's Passenger and in the films Polite Society and Joy. She is currently filming The Lady, based on the story of Jane Andrews, a former royal dresser who worked for the Duchess of York who was later convicted of murder.
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