Call the Midwife fans have recently discovered that one star of the BBC shows a big connection with an EastEnders legend.

It comes as Daniel Laurie who plays Reggie Jackson in the drama is the son of none other than EastEnders star Leslie Grantham.

Grantham was most famed for playing the role of the villain Den Watts, a.k.a Dirty Den, which gained him the title of soap royalty. 

Call the Midwife star shares connection with EastEnders legend

Laurie first appeared on Call the Midwife back in 2017 when his character Reggie arrived in Poplar following the death of his mum.

Reggie moved in with his uncle, Fred Buckle (Cliff Parisi) and has now become a series regular, often having his own moving storylines and becoming a firm favourite for BBC viewers.

Laurie's father, Grantham, starred as Dirty Den in EastEnders from 1985 where Den and his wife Angie (Anita Dobson) were the landlords of The Queen Vic.

In the BBC soap, Den had many memorable moments including the Christmas special where he told Angie he plans to divorce her, setting the nation's mind that he was a villain.

Although Dirty Den was 'killed off' ahead of EastEnders 4th anniversary in 1989, Grantham returned to the soap in 2003.

However, his stay in Walford was short-lived after Den's wife Chrissie (Tracy Ann Oberman) killed him.

In 2018, Grantham died aged 71 following lung cancer treatment.

Call the Midwife returned on January 7 for its 13 series with an emotional start as new characters pupil Midwives Joyce Highland and Rosalind Clifford were introduced.

With new faces, there were some missing characters as Nurse Lucille played by Leonie Elliott previously announced she would not be back on the BBC show.

The star confirmed back in 2023 that she would not be returning after sharing a picture of a clipboard saying "farewell" and captioning the Instagram post "Over and out."

Call the Midwife began in 2012 and was originally based on the books by Jennifer Worth and her time as a midwife in the East End of London during the 1950s.