Actress Jenny Agutter has told how she believes that today’s society has suffered as a result of the actions of the 1960s “me generation”.

Ms Agutter, 59, who shot to fame in The Railway Children, is starring as a nun in a new BBC1 Sunday night drama about 1950s midwives.

The American Werewolf In London star, famous for disrobing in 1970s films Walkabout and Logan’s Run, told the Radio Times: “I came from the 1960s ‘me’ generation, whereas the ’50s were about recovering from two world wars.

“They were depressing and difficult times, and nowhere more so than in the Docklands.”

But the actress, who plays Sr Julienne in the drama Call The Midwife, said: “We’re seeing the difficulties that the ‘me, me, me’ attitude has created.”

Referring to the anti-inequality protest outside St Paul’s Cathedral, she said: “The people sitting outside St Paul’s have a point.

“One’s got to look at those issues and see how you can make society work.”

The BBC drama also stars comedienne Miranda Hart and is based on late writer and nurse Jennifer Worth’s best-selling books on her career delivering babies in 1950s east London.

Ms Agutter said of her role: “It’s quite different from anything I’ve ever played.

“It’s not about being good. It’s about the strength of character of a person that lives in a convent in the East End in the 1950s.”