coming soon Exciting first pics as filming gets underway on new Call the Midwife
as more behind-the-scenes pictures are released, we share what we know about the next series…
Filming is now well underway on the eighth series of BBC1’S hit period drama Call
the Midwife, and if these beautiful on-set photos are anything to go by, we’ve got a real treat in store!
While Jenny Agutter, aka stoic Sister Julienne, is looking thoughtful as she prepares to film a scene without her character’s trademark habit, Leonie Elliott, who plays kindly Caribbean nurse Lucille Anderson, looks fabulous in a green roll-neck and a swing coat as she has the finishing touches put to her 1960s look.
But what challenges will our favourite nuns and midwives be facing in the new series? Here’s everything TV Times knows so far about the upcoming run…
Fresh cases
The new series, set to air early next year, will begin in Spring 1964 and explore the cultural, social and economic changes of the mid-1960s. Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) gives cause for concern as she falls ill and then disappears from Nonnatus House, while Nurse Crane (Linda Bassett) has to deliver twins. But there’s fun to be had as Vi (Annabelle Apsion) hosts a teddy bears’ picnic and runs a contest to guess whether the Queen’s imminent fourth child will be a boy or a girl! (Spoiler alert: it’s a boy – Prince Edward!)
‘We can’t wait to share the events of 1964 with our loyal audience,’ says the show’s creator, Heidi Thomas. ‘People ask how we keep coming back year after year, but we never run out of stories, and we never run out of love.’
new faces
Alongside the return of the regular cast, there are three newcomers to Poplar as Fenella Woolgar (War & Peace) plays chirpy Sister Hilda, rising star
Christmas cheer
Ella Bruccoleri joins the cast as trainee nun Sister Frances and Georgie Glen (Waterloo Road) takes the role of indomitable surgery receptionist Miss Higgins. Before the new series, an exciting festive special, set at Christmas 1963, sees Miriam Margolyes play formidable Sister Mildred, who causes uproar at Nonnatus House when she arrives with four orphaned refugees from China.
Meanwhile, Sister Julienne is horrified to be in line to replace the Order’s ailing Mother Superior, but, thankfully, midwife Trixie Franklin (Helen George) returns to lend a hand after taking time out in Italy as part of her recovery from alcoholism. Welcome back!