‘Call The Midwife is more than a TV show; it’s a family’

For screenwriter and Call The Midwife creator Heidi Thomas, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year…

After our Christmas Day lunch every year, my family and I all pile on to the sofa to watch the Christmas special of Call The Midwife. Although it makes me terribly nervous, it’s a big part of our tradition; it’s more than just a TV show to us. Growing up in Garston, near Liverpool, in the 1960s, TV was a huge part of my life. Mine was the first generation that grew up with the TV taking pride of place in the home. I knew I wanted to be a writer and whenever I watched programmes like The Waltons, I felt something stirring inside me. Now, I realise that was the nascent desire to be a TV dramatist.

After graduating from Liverpool University with a degree in English, I won Most Promising Playwright in the National Youth Theatre Awards. My work was then produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and in London, but it was at the Liverpool Playhouse where I met my future husband, the actor Stephen Mcgann. He’d been cast in one of my plays!

In 1991, I had my first opportunity to write for television and I worked on Soldier Soldier, which became a big hit. Screenwriting led to a new chapter in my career. I went on to work on various TV dramas; Cranford, the show based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s books starring Dame Judi Dench, was one of my favourites.

I’d never read Jennifer Worth’s memoir Call The Midwife until the producer, Pippa Harris, sent me a copy. She said: ‘I think you could do something with this.’ The story of Jennifer’s life as a midwife in East London in the 1950s sparked something inside me. By page 17, I was crying. I thought, that’s it: giving birth is one of the great dramas of life. Our TV adaptation premiered in 2012 and was a huge success, with 10m viewers. We used up most of the material from the original memoirs very early on and sadly, Jennifer had passed away shortly before we started filming. From series two onwards, I had to research and write new stories myself. It means I spend much of my time hunkering down in medical archives to research context and storylines. The Wellcome Trust Archives are a treasure trove – you’d be amazed at what crops up.

We’ve done nine series now and, over the years, we’ve gathered a huge number of loyal viewers. But it’s not a static audience; younger women have started discovering the show and more men watch it these days, too (including my son Dominic, now in his 20s). Stephen and I have a strong partnership, and I’m thrilled he’s part of the show [as Dr Turner]. He’s not allowed to read the scripts before any of the other actors! But, when I’m at home writing the next series, he sends me photos from when he’s filming on set, which helps me feel more involved with it all.

The cast and crew are very much like family. We all missed each other when we had to stop filming because of lockdown, so getting back together to make a Christmas special has been wonderful. What’s lovely about the Christmas specials is that they’ve become woven into other people’s festive traditions. When the show comes to an end one day, I will miss it enormously – creating Call The Midwife has been, and always will be, the great privilege of my life – but at least I’ll have something else to watch on Christmas Day!

• Call The Midwife will air on BBC One on Christmas Day

Creating Call The Midwife

has been the great privilege of my life