Call The Midwife
BBC One Christmas Day (TBC)
The annual festive adventure featuring Poplar’s baby-wranglers has long been a highlight of the BBC’s Christmas schedule, and this year looks set to be no exception. Not least because a white Christmas seems to be guaranteed: back in October we were treated to photographs of Leonie Elliott, the returning Helen George and Megan Cusack, who play Lucille, Trixie and Nancy respectively, enjoying a snowball fight.
More generally, news has gradually trickled out over the year about what we might expect. In July, creator Heidi Thomas, speaking to the Radio Times ( radiotimes. com), revealed that one of the Christmas storylines will feature “a young woman who’s recently been discharged from prison as a single mother” and finds that she’s not as alone in the world as she fears. We’re also promised a plot line with a talent show.
But as ever, the heartwarming and humorous aspects of the show never get too saccharine, and it’s always emphasised that the midwives are serving a working-class community during years of change and upheaval. In this context, look out for the return of Rhoda Mullucks (Liz White), first seen in season five and whose daughter had birth defects after Rhoda was prescribed the new drug thalidomide for her morning sickness by Dr Patrick Turner (Stephen McGann). How will the family cope with the imminent arrival of another baby?
The eight-episode 12th series, which will likely follow the Christmas special in January 2023, is set in 1968 and the first instalment coincides with Enoch Powell’s infamous anti-immigration ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. The series will explore the impact on race relations of a polemic that was, in the words of Thomas, “a big turning point for our society, and the way we spoke of and behaved towards people who had come here from other countries”.
We are also promised the first ventouse birth to be featured in the series, together with a new nun – Sister Veronica.