Julia Ogden’s surprise reveal on ‘Murdoch Mysteries’ turns out to be actor Hélène Joy’s too

“I could stop sucking in my tummy,” said Joy who, in a case of art imitating life — or is that the other way around? — was about three months pregnant in August when shooting the scene in which Julia reveals her condition.

Viewers learned the Murdochs’ baby news on Monday night, when the long-running CBC drama aired its Christmas episode.

Nobody on set knew that Joy was also expecting — other than the head of the wardrobe department and the showrunner — until Julia spilled the beans.

“I was already getting a bit of a pot belly, which I’d been hiding on set, which is not so easy in these costumes,” she said, referring to the early 1900s wardrobe.

“Although I look back and think, ‘What was I worried about?’ I look so skinny compared to now,” added Joy, 43, who is due with her first child at the end of December.

You might think it would be particularly felicitous for an actor to deliver lines that hit so close to home, but Joy said it was “almost the opposite of what you would expect.”

“When you fully pretend you can immerse yourself in an emotion,” she explained. “I felt quite shy about the whole moment compared to what I would if I was completely pretending.”

It was a boon for showrunner Peter Mitchell, however, who had been looking for “a really big finish” for the Christmas special.

Obviously, “Murdoch” is just one of many television shows to adapt to a pregnant cast member.

The most famous case involved Lucille Ball, who was expecting her second child with husband and co-star Desi Arnaz in 1952 while making “I Love Lucy.”

According to Time magazine, the TV code back then prohibited even use of the word “pregnant,” but Arnaz convinced CBS to incorporate Ball’s pregnancy into the plot. She was reportedly five months along when she filmed the episode in which Lucy Ricardo tells husband Ricky she’s expecting; she gave birth to son Desi Jr. just hours before 44 million Americans watched Lucy go to hospital to have Little Ricky.

Other stars since have had their pregnancies written into their shows, like Lisa Kudrow in “Friends,” Melissa Rauch in “The Big Bang Theory” and Melanie Scrofano in “Wynonna Earp,” who it’s worth noting continued to do her own stunts while pregnant. Sometimes, the plot is altered to disguise the pregnancy, like when Gillian Anderson’s Agent Scully was kidnapped in “The X-Files.” Or seasons have been cut short, as for Sarah Jessica Parker on “Sex and the City.”

Baby bumps have even been edited out, like Claire Danes’ in “Homeland.” But more often than not, the pregnancy is hidden under loose clothing or behind props.

Joy had to do some of that on “Murdoch” since its episodes, as with many TV shows, are shot out of order. She had to “hide an ever increasingly big belly” in four or five episodes. “We had a lot of fun doing that,” she said.

Julia carried files and bags, wore big coats and stood behind other people. And “they couldn’t shoot me from the side, ever.”

Then “the day came where I’m allowed to look pregnant and that was so great.”

Then came the question of how to costume a pregnant Julia.

Joy notes that Victorian women often wore corsets until they were quite far along, although that became less popular toward the 1910s. There was another “unattractive” style of pregnancy dress that looked like a tent draped over the body.

Happily, Julia adopted empire waists that brought her skirts just under her bust line, although “it ends up making me look quite huge.”

Alas, the wardrobe team couldn’t help with Joy’s morning sickness, which was more like all-day sickness and lasted into almost her fifth month.

“I was wretchedly ill,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything that horrible.” She threw up on set a couple of times, including into a garbage bin “while everyone waited on me. That was disgusting.”

But “after that it just got fun.”

Her colleagues “have been so incredibly supportive it’s been like a dream place to be pregnant.” And it’s been entertaining to feel the baby “rolling over in the middle of a scene.”

There has actually been a fair bit of serendipity attending this on-set pregnancy.

For instance, the early season plot line saw Julia get fired from her job as a surgeon at a big hospital, a job it would have been very unrealistic for a pregnant Julia to keep doing. Instead, she’s working with women and childbirth at the institution that will become real-life Women’s College Hospital. “They planned that before I knew I was pregnant,” Joy said.

And although the season’s unusual 24-episode order has kept Joy working past the point where shooting would normally finish — “I’m shocked at how what I would have called an average working day completely lays me out now” — the cast and crew will start a five-week hiatus exactly when she’s due.

Julia will still be pregnant when Joy gets back to work, so wardrobe will break out a fake belly, and the Murdoch baby will be “born” sometime in January. The set will also resemble something of a mini nursery, with Joy’s infant there as well as the twins who will play Julia’s and William’s child, “which will be very interesting,” Joy said.

She and the Murdochs will be figuring out the early stages of parenthood together.

“Julia is a great doctor and has all the medical knowledge in the world, but she really doesn’t have a lot of maternal instinct,” Joy said. “Murdoch doesn’t either, he’s too nerdy.

“It will be a lot of fun to see how they parent.”

“Murdoch Mysteries” returns to CBC Jan. 3 at 8 p.m. and can be streamed at CBC Gem.