WITH FESTIVE SPECIAL SET TO AIR, WE REVEAL... Secrets behind Call the Midwife
It’s been almost a decade since Call the Midwife first brought joy into the nation’s living rooms and a community of nuns and midwives became famous. That’s over 130 births, 1,100 on screen babies and more umbilical cords than you can shake a pair of forceps at.
And there’s plenty more to come. The BBC has commissioned two more series.
Here, ahead of this year’s 90-minute Christmas day special, producers reveal behind-the-scenes secrets of the show. features@mirror.co.uk
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Christmas joy
“Call the Midwife is part of the ritual of Christmas day,” says executive producer, Dame Pippa Harris. “People look to the show for comfort and reassurance, and this year that has taken on an extra poignancy.”
The Christmas special was written by creator Heidi Thomas, who says: “Last year it was wonderful to be filming up in the Outer Hebrides. This year, because of Covid, I haven’t been on set.”
Her husband Stephen McGann, who plays Dr Turner, has been, however.
“Every day I sent my husband off in a hermetically sealed car and he came back and shared it all with me,” she says.
“We are very much a family on Call the Midwife and we have missed each other.”
This year, love is in the air for Trixie, played by Helen George, but she doesn’t necessarily want it to be.
“She is forced to put herself out there and date, somewhat against her will,” says Helen. She adds: “In the most rotten of years, we will all be taking comfort in the moments that make our Christmas Day ‘normal’ for a few moments. If that means watching our Christmas special with a family size box of Quality Street – then that’s exactly what we should do.”
...and sadness
Heidi understands Christmas can be stressful and predicts there will be many lonely and isolated people this year.
She says: “Death, illness, poverty and despair don’t stop because it’s Christmas.”
The writer is speaking from personal experience. “Two years ago, my mother Maryse was dying at Christmas,” she says. “Her cancer was terminal at diagnosis and so for six months I moved home to Liverpool to nurse her. She died one month later, so it was our last Christmas with her.
“Nursing her through her dying days was strangely life-affirming. It was a vivid reminder of the power of humanity.”
Heidi also insists that the East End values which ripple out from Nonnatus House are not lost to us. “The pandemic is forcing us to reappraise those values,” she says. “There is still so much good about humanity, so much hope.”
Research
The first and much of the second series were based on midwife Jennifer Worth’s best-selling memoir, but the rest comes from Heidi’s imagination.
“I do my own research,” she says. “The statistics are so revealing. I started with 1957 for Poplar and it tells you how
many peop le died in childbirth. They also showed the neo-natal statistics but divided between legitimate and illegitimate births.
“Seeing it written there in black and white was a stark reminder of the stigma and shame of having a baby out of wedlock, and yet in that year 10% of all babies born in Poplar were illegitimate. They offer up a valuable snapshot into the moral and ethical issues of the day.”
Fans
Heidi says the show’s fans are “the most loving, loyal fans you can imagine”. The
show has long been popular in the UK but with the coronavirus pandemic it has reached new audiences too.
Dame Pippa says: “This year, we have had a deluge of mail from all around the world, especially from Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and America, from new fans who have watched the series over lockdown and connected with it.
“I loved a letter I received from an 83-year-old man in Florida who told me had watched all nine series twice during lockdown and how it had kept him company. We also heard in the past from a midwifery school in rural India who show an episode
of Call the Midwife each week as part of their training as a good example of compassion and care.”
Breaking new ground
The show has tackled social, cultural and economic issues including nationalised healthcare, teenage pregnancy, adoption, poverty and disease in London’s working-class Poplar. The Tha l idomide scandal was addressed,
as well as what life was like for gay men when homosexuality was illegal.
Midwife Trixie confronted alcoholism and the show’s first West Indian midwife, Lucille Anderson, faced prejudice when she arrived.
“This Christmas we are bringing back a character called Gloria from series six who suffered a series of miscarriages,” Dame Pippa adds.
“This gave us a chance to highlight the problem of recurrent miscarriage, which is something that rarely gets spoken about.
“On a personal level this was important to me. I suffered seven miscarriages before I gave birth to my daughter, so I was keen to cover this issue. Women shouldn’t have to suffer in silence.”
Highlights of 10 years
Heidi says she has loved seeing husband Stephen “bantering” with Daniel Laurie, who plays Reggie. She has a deeply personal reason for this.
“My brother David had Down’s Syndrome,” she explains. “David died in 1985 and Steve never met him.
“It dawned on me as I watched Steve and Daniel, that this is what Steve and David’s relationship would have been like.”
She also pays tribute to the “strong female energy” of the show.
She says: “We have shared such special moments. Jenny Agutter, who plays Sister Julienne, became a grandmother for the first time and found out about it on set and Helen George
met her husband Jack Ashton, who played Reverend Tom, and we all adore their baby daughter Wren. She is a true Call the Midwife baby.
“When I lost my mother, the team were there for me. We have shared our joys and heartaches.”
Birth scenes
Midwife Terri Coates has been the consultant from the show’s inception.
“We don’t show too much in the way of blood or gore,” she says. “Births are much cleaner than in reality.
“The fake blood is organic and as safe as it can be. It can take five hours to film a birth scene, but the baby is only involved for a few minutes.
“The prosthetics babies are better than ever. The umbilical cords are silicon – we can clamp and cut them like a proper umbilical cord.”
■ Call the Midwife is on BBC1 at 7.40pm, Christmas Day