A seven-year-old girl is delighted to have made her TV debut in the BBC One drama Call the Midwife.
Emily Webb played the returning character of Susan Mullocks on the show’s Christmas episode, a girl who suffered the impacts of thalidomide.
In previous episodes, the character had been a baby but Emily had the opportunity to play the girl a few years on as the series revisited her story.
Emily joined an agency, JLH Arts Agency, and had been with them for a couple of months when she received the audition for the part.
Her mum, Michelle Webb, said there was a lot of secrecy and anticipation in the run-up to the episode airing because they could not give away that the character of Susan would be returning for the Christmas episode.
They were relieved in December when promos started airing and the secret was out.
She explained that in order to get Emily to look like the character, her arms were hidden underneath her costume and she then had prosthetic limbs fitted.
Michelle said: “She absolutely loved it, really loved it.
“They are so lovely there.
“I think maybe because it’s a show around children, there are always children on set.
“She loved it.
“They were long days for her, obviously in accordance with child labour laws.
“Sometimes she was getting home at midnight and then getting ready to go back on set the next day but she never complained.
“It was hard work for her as well because the way her costume was, she was kind of all strapped up in a straitjacket kind of thing because they fitted prosthetic limbs to her.
“So, it was difficult for her because in costume she didn’t have as much freedom as the other kids playing and things like that.
“She was kind of all bound up and there…
