As Call the Midwife celebrates a decade of warming our hearts, Stephen McGann – aka Dr Patrick Turner – examines its enduring appeal, while cast and crew give us a peek behind the scenes
From left, it all began: Jenny Lee (Jessica Raine), a new midwife who is also qualified (from Jenny Lee), and Trixie Franklin (Helen George), in series one.
Call the Midwife? That’s just about babies being born, isn’t it?’ I still get that from members of the public who’ve never watched the programme. Call the Midwife, for those who’ve seen it know a lot more! The remark makes me smile – the assumption that being the first drama to represent the universal human experience of childbirth on pre-watershed television is somehow an achievement so trivial it deserves the word ‘just’ in front of it!
Call the Midwife was never a ‘big’ drama. Its virtue doesn’t lie in a cavalier swagger or lavish self-confidence. It is rooted in something more permanent. Quiet compassion. An unshakeable humanity. Absolute sincerity. The ability to grasp viewers’ hearts and minds week in and week out from the TV screen.
![‘Series two began with Laura Main and I playing a religious sister and a widowed doctor with son Timothy [Max Macmillan],’ says Stephen, ‘but our characters ended in a love that led to wedding bells’](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/11/09/11/50251923-0-image-a-2_1636458382088.jpg)
‘Series two began with Laura Main and I playing a religious sister and a widowed doctor with son Timothy [Max Macmillan],’ says Stephen, ‘but our characters ended in a love that led to wedding bells’
It’s funny to recall a time when I’d never heard the phrase ‘Call the Midwife’. The show’s producer, Pippa Harris, sent my partner, the screenwriter Heidi [Thomas], a copy of Jennifer Worth’s bestselling book to read with a view to adapting it for television. ‘You know, I think I might be able to do something with this…’ Heidi mused.
It was true. The results were watched around the globe over the last ten years. Our first episode aired on January 2012, and the BBC quickly recommissioned it. This little, brave, hardy, but gentle show proved to be a huge hit. It was a surprise, and no one expected it.
Lucille, the midwife (Leonie Elliot), helps to give birth to the unmarried teenager mother. It is not uncommon for the show to tackle controversial stories and address social issues. ‘We work hard to make childbirth look as realistic as possible so we need babies only a few days old,’ says midwifery adviser Terri Coates. ‘I make sure everything is clean, warm and safe’
The supposed ‘woman’s world’ of childbirth had spent years in the shadows of TV drama, reduced to a few panting seconds in the service of more masculine plotlines. The medical women in Jennifer’s stories were hardened by experience yet devoted to the care of those who endured lives of invisibility, indifference, pain and shame with phenomenal stoicism. It would take respect to tell their stories, if the birth experience was going to be used as a platform for more life drama.
‘The programme is so popular because you see a group of women who all get on,’ says Emerald Fennell (pictured left). ‘It shows friendships like ones we have’. Playing Patsy Mount was Emerald’s big break: she’s since gone on to win an Oscar for her film Promising Young Woman
Call the Midwife is a story that makes me cry each week. Heidi writes it and it’s why I believe it. We actors often cry while playing it. It’s celebrating its tenth anniversary because those of us involved with it absolutely mean what we do. We’re as much members of the audience as our viewers. Ultimately, these stories are about all of us –what we all have in common, and how we might care a bit better for each other.
![‘In 1964 Biba had a pink gingham dress which was a galloping success,’ says costume designer Claire Lynch. ‘So we re-created it for Valerie (Jennifer Kirby) to wear [above, far right, with, from left, Helen George, Fenella Woolgar and Leonie Elliott]. The actresses’ underwear is also important because it has such an effect on people’s outline. Luckily, the 1960s Gossard bra was very much the same shape as a modern-day M&S T-shirt bra’](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/11/12/11/50251931-10181777-_In_1964_Biba_had_a_pink_gingham_dress_which_was_a_galloping_suc-a-1_1636714807107.jpg)
‘In 1964 Biba had a pink gingham dress which was a galloping success,’ says costume designer Claire Lynch. ‘So we re-created it for Valerie (Jennifer Kirby) to wear [above, far right, with, from left, Helen George, Fenella Woolgar and Leonie Elliott]. The actresses’ underwear is also important because it has such an effect on people’s outline. Luckily, the 1960s Gossard bra was very much the same shape as a modern-day M&S T-shirt bra’
‘Filming in South Africa for the 2016 Christmas special was extraordinary,’ says Jenny Agutter, pictured centre right with, from left, Laura Main, Helen George, Victoria Yeates, Charlotte Ritchie and Stephen McGann. ‘When we were moving between locations we were asked if we wanted to go in one of the official cars. We all said, “No, we want to stay in the truck!”’
Linda Bassett and Jenny Agutter play Sister Julienne, and nurse Phyllis Crane. They push a car through a scene from the 1963 Big Freeze. ‘Call the Midwife is a period drama that takes place in recent history – for many people, it’s their own past,’ says Stephen McGann. ‘Series seven provided us with a historical event that would certainly have impacted on the midwives working in early 1963. Two months of severe Arctic weather ravaged Great Britain, causing snowdrifts on roads and separating entire towns. Filming our Big Freeze involved building up large pretend snow mounds on the street then covering everything with a specialist fake snow material that looks absolutely authentic but smells strangely of burnt paper!’
![An overcrowded love scene, featuring Reverend Tom Hereward and Trixie. Their characters’ romance was ill-fated but the pair fell in love in real life. ‘I married Barbara [Charlotte Ritchie] in the show but Helen [who played Trixie] and I started going out together,’ says Jack Ashton, who played Rev Tom](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/11/09/11/50251925-0-image-a-9_1636459079253.jpg)
The love scene features Reverend Tom Hereward (left) and Trixie (right). Their characters’ romance was ill-fated but the pair fell in love in real life. ‘I married Barbara [Charlotte Ritchie]Helen in the Show but [who played Trixie] and I started going out together,’ says Jack Ashton, who played Rev Tom
This is an edited extract from Call the Midwife: A Labour of Love (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20) To order a copy for £17 until 28 November, go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3308 9193. free UK delivery on orders over £20