10 CTM FACTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW
1
Emerald Fennell, who played Patsy Mount for four years on the show, went on to write Killing Eve Season
2, and has just been nominated for three Oscars for her film
Promising Young Woman.
2
Stephen McGann (Dr Turner) is married to Call The Midwife creator Heidi Thomas.
3
Most on-screen births involve both a real and a prosthetic baby. The show has three prosthetic babies, which cost £5,000 each to make.
4
It takes around seven hours to film every birth – real infants can only film for 15 minutes at a time so the team has worked with thousands of children.
5
The show always starts filming in April, which means it’s summer when it comes to making the Christmas special, despite the fake snow! Laura Main and Stephen McGann (Shelagh and Patrick Turner) regularly appear on set in big coats with bathing costumes worn underneath to keep them cool.
6
When it gets too hot, Helen George, who plays Trixie, hires an ice cream van to serve the cast and crew.
7
Mary Berry offered to bake the cakes for the show when producer Ann Tricklebank ran into her at last year’s National Television Awards.
8
There’s a drawer full of umbilical cords on set – different sizes of baby require different sizes of cord.
9
Minced beef was once used as a broken-up placenta.
10
CTM has been sold to over 100 countries. The 2017 Christmas Special also aired on Christmas night across the USA.
● Call The Midwife returns Sun 18 Apr, 8pm, BBC1