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PBS presents the ninth season of ‘Call the Midwife’
PBS’s hit series “Call the Midwife” reminds us that there is a time to be born, a time to die and a time for everything in between when Season 9 premieres Sunday, March 29, on PBS.
The show follows a group of midwives who work at the Nonnatus House and the nuns of the Order of St. Raymund Nonnatus, who live there. The first season was set in 1957, but this ninth installment brings us up to the mid-1960s, a time of social change and upheaval. As the world changes around them, the nurses and nuns of Nonnatus house team up to serve local families in the fictional area of Poplar, London.
Among the team of midwives is the newly sober Trixie Franklin (Helen George, “The Three Musketeers,” 2011), the prickly Phyllis Crane (Linda Bassett, “Calendar Girls,” 2005), the industrious Valerie Dyer (Jennifer Kirby, “RSC Live: Henry V,” 2015) and, one of the newest nurses at Nonnatus house, the resolute Lucille Anderson (Leonie Elliott, “Black Mirror”), the convent’s first black nurse. The nuns and nurses of Nonnatus house are led by Sisterin-Charge Julienne (Jenny Agutter, “Logan’s Run,” 1976), whose wisdom, kindness and steady hand have helped many of the sisters, midwives and townspeople through difficult times.
The show is based on the Midwife Trilogy, a memoir collection by reallife British nurse Jennifer Worth. The book series consists of “Call the Midwife,” “Shadows of the Workhouse” and “Farewell to the East End.” Much like the show, the books follow Worth as she worked as a nurse for a Whitechapel hospital alongside a group of Anglican nuns from the Sisters of St. John the Divine. Worth focused her work on low-income women and families in the area.
It’s no secret that the “Call the Midwife” series has effects that reach far beyond entertainment. The characters’ positive perspectives and empathetic attitudes have shined a light on female struggles and brought the stories of many forgotten women back into the public consciousness. The show has informed viewers about major health issues and good birthing practices, and it has been used to showcase midwifery, which is often misunderstood, as a credible and important career.
Most notably, the drama has educated viewers by featuring diseases and encouraging vaccination, and some experts attribute a rise in vaccination rates to the effect of the show. Due to its overwhelming popularity and critical acclaim, the series has been renewed for at least two more seasons, through 2022.
Following the lead of other British shows on PBS, Season 9 has already aired in the U.K. earlier this year. Because of this, it’s easy to find out what to expect from the next eight episodes (no spoilers here, though). The new season begins in January 1965 and features the characters receiving news of the death of Winston Churchill. With the ‘60s in full swing, your favorite midwives put their best foot forward when it comes to fashion this season, sporting time-trendy hair and colorful outfits.
The nurses also deal with some new equipment and changes to medical procedures, as well as an evolving landscape as the East End is rebuilt around them. But there’s a lot more than clothes and equipment on the horizon for these women — for all women, in fact. The show’s timeline is getting ever closer to the 1967 Abortion Act, which legalized abortion by licensed practitioners in certain areas of the U.K. in the hopes of ending the dangerous, and often fatal, back-alley procedures that were common before that time. We certainly saw the set-up for these changes towards the end of Season 8, when Nurse Valerie (Val) found out that her grandmother had been performing unhygienic, illegal abortions for money. It was a storyline that divided viewers and critics.
This fascinating time period is also when the revolutionary idea of contraception for all began to gain serious traction. Plus, last season we saw Nurse Trixie step up as an advocate for the Brook Advisory Centre, which is a fictional version of an actual center started in 1964 to help promote sexual health and safe-sex practices for unmarried youth.
It’s exciting to see how the show’s writer and creator, Heidi Thomas, works these issues into the plotline for the riveting new season. There are so many powerful stories to tell, and there are new challenges, and even new characters, to keep you hooked. A team of four handsome doctors arrives at Nonnatus house to shake things up, and we’re sure to see some friction as everyone gets adjusted, not to mention storylines highlighting gender struggles and the sometimes fraught doctor-nurse relationship. Could there be a chance for romance as well?
The first episode of the new season features a diphtheria outbreak and a baby abandoned in a dustbin — and things get even more dramatic with each episode. Deaths and departures pepper this installment, and you’ll need to tune in to find out which characters could be on their way out. Season 9 of “Call the Midwife” premieres Sunday, March 29, on PBS.