An actress who grew up in Pembrokeshire is bringing a touch of west Wales to the East End as she appears in the hit BBC1 series, Call the Midwife.

Kate Lamb, who went to school in Tenby, has won a plum part in the award-winning show, and will be at the heart of one of its more controversial storylines.

She plays hospital nursing sister and St John Ambulance Brigade volunteer Delia, the girlfriend of midwife Patsy, and how their relationship will develop in the next few weeks has set many the show’s 10million viewers talking

“It’s a very exciting storyline, and it was really something to get my teeth into, “ said Kate, whose work since leaving the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) has included a six-month Europe and the Far East tour with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Company - where she played the challenging lead role of Katherine in Taming of the Shrew - and a theatre comedy drama, Smack Family Robinson, with Keith Allen and Denise Welch.

Speaking exclusively to the Western Telegraph this week, Kate said: “I was over the moon to get the role - Call the Midwife is just so well-written and the stories have such heart. It is crafted with love from the very beginning, and it was just amazing to be a part of it”.

“I was asked to audition with a regional accent, and I just felt that Delia could be Welsh, so I decided to make her from Pembrokeshire and that has actually been written into the show.”

Kate, who had vowed to be an actress from the age of four, got her first taste of the magic of theatre through Tenby’s Stagestruck company, when she played a weasel in Toad of Toad Hall.

“I didn’t have a word to say, but I took it very seriously and loved every moment,” she recalled. “I even had a spiked dog collar to make myself look the part.

“I spent a lot of my childhood in a fantasy world, and loved the film Oliver so much that I actually slept for three nights in a basket like the character on screen did. So when I got the chance to play the role of Oliver with Stagestruck in 1998 it was something I had dreamt about for years.”

Kate went to Tenby’s infants and junior schools, leaving Greenhill School after GCSEs to study at the United World College in Swaziland, before going on to do an English and drama degree at Bristol University.

She filmed Call the Midwife between May and October and has fond memories of the camaraderie amongst the cast, which includes Miranda Hart, Jenny Agutter, Pam Ferris and Judy Parfitt.

“They all care so much about the programme and the issues raised,” said Kate. “It was such a friendly atmosphere, with everyone bringing their dogs along to filming, and they made me - and my chocolate Labrador Willow - very welcome.”

Kate appears in four of the eight programmes in this Call the Midwife series, and can next be seen on Sunday February 22 when the next stage in the Delia-Patsy relationship will be revealed.

And even Willow the dog has managed a cameo appearance in the show, appearing with her lead held by an extra as a Hallowee’en parade plays out in the penultimate programme.

*Call the Midwife is on BBC One at 8pm on Sundays.