Call the Midwife star's 'biggest regret' that landed him in prison after botched robbery

Call the Midwife favourite Cliff Parisi has opened up about the criminal past that still haunts him decades later - admitting he once got away with a botched bank robbery for an entire year before the police came knocking. The 64-year-old actor, best known to fans as warm-hearted caretaker Fred Buckle in the beloved BBC drama, says the failed heist remains the biggest mistake of his life.

"Trying my luck as a rubbish bank robber and ending up in prison aged 19," Cliff told Saga Magazine. "Where I grew up was fairly rough. I left school at 14 unable to read or write and if you didn't have any prospects, which I didn't, you could easily get in trouble. And I did." He went on to explain that the plan didn't exactly go smoothly. "When the robbery went wrong, I escaped from the bank on a bus. I got away with it for a year," he said.

But Cliff's luck eventually ran out. "Finally, one of the other guys got arrested and the next thing I knew, the police were knocking on the front door," he recalled.

The arrest came at a particularly dramatic moment in his life. "I was just about to go on stage for a big production of South Pacific, but got carted off to Brixton Prison. I got bail and was able to do the show before I was sentenced."

He ended up serving an 18-month sentence and used his time behind bars to work on his reading skills - something he'd never had the chance to do growing up.

At the time, he was still unable to read or write after leaving school and had little hope for the future.

"This has hung over me like a black cloud," Cliff told the Sunday Mirror ahead of his appearance on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2019. "It was a massive mistake that I made and I deeply regret it."

Cliff, who previously starred in EastEnders as Minty Peterson, has also spoken openly about the traumatic early years that shaped him. He revealed that when he was a young child, his family's landlady once tried to buy him and his sister from their teenage parents, George and Irene Manley.

When they refused, the landlady kicked them out of their home, leaving them to sleep rough in Hackney's Victoria Park.

"Mum and Dad jumped on a bus with us but it was chased by a police car and stopped," Cliff said. "Me and my sister were ripped from their arms and they were both left sobbing by the side of the road."

It comes after rumours that Call the Midwife is coming to an end following its upcoming 15th season were dismissed by the BBC.

The future of the award-winning series, which has been airing for more than a decade, seemed uncertain after reports claimed that it wouldn't be back for a full season after the 15th lands in 2026.