The enduring show begins filming its 15th series with a two-part Christmas Special.
The mighty Call the Midwife began in 2012, and the BBC has confirmed the start of filming on series 15. The show is made for the corporation by Neal Street Productions, and is a co-production with PBS.
However, they’ve also revealed wider plans too: the show expecting a couple of happy events. There’s both a movie and a prequel television series in the works!
First up, Series 15 will kick off with a two-part Christmas Special set in Hong Kong and Poplar. That is followed by eight regular episodes, beginning in January 2026.
Here’s the synopsis for Call the Midwife series 15:
When senior members of the Nonnatus House staff head to Hong Kong on a mercy mission, the younger midwives are left to cope alone. As the Christmas action shifts between the sun-drenched Far East and a snowy East End, Sister Julienne suddenly finds herself excited about the Order’s future. After years of battling change, she decides to embrace it, work with it, and see what love can do. This change of energy reverberates throughout series 15. The new series kicks off in 1971 with several of the ladies embracing Women’s Lib and burning their bras outside Nonnatus House. As the year unfolds, we see the team handle cases including premature birth, placenta previa, kidney cancer, tuberculosis and slavery.
A prequel TV series and a movie
While details are scant, we are told that the prequel series will be set in Poplar during World War Two. It will be made in 2026.
The film will be set overseas take place in 1972. It promises to feature iconic characters from the television series and will be made in collaboration with BBC Films.
Heidi Thomas OBE, creator and writer, says:
“The opening of new doors at Nonnatus House feels profoundly emotional, and yet just right. I have never run out of stories for our midwives, and I never will. But having wept, laughed, and raged my way from 1957 to 1971, I found myself yearning to delve into the deeper past. The Blitz years in the East End were extraordinary – filled with loss, togetherness, courage and joy. The bombs fell, the babies kept on coming, and the Sisters kept on going. There will be so much in the prequel for our wonderful, loyal fans, including the appearance of some familiar (if much younger!) faces.
As the classic Call the Midwife series moves further into the 1970s, it also seems the perfect time for our much-loved regulars to take a short break from Poplar and test themselves in an unfamiliar landscape. The rise in hospital births, and changes in the NHS, have clipped their wings, and this is their chance to take flight and work out what really matters. Whilst the location of the film remains top-secret, I can say it is going to look absolutely fantastic on the big screen!”
Further details on these expansions to the Call the Midwife universe (the Midverse?) will be released later this year. Both projects come from the team of showrunner Heidi Thomas and executive producers Pippa Harris and Ann Tricklebank. The trio will also helm series 16 of the main show too.
In the UK, you can find the entire Call the Midwife back catalogue on BBC iPlayer.