It is a Sunday night staple. For over a decade, millions of people have sat down with a cup of tea to watch the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House navigate the grime and glory of London’s East End. Call the Midwife isn't just a show about babies. Honestly, if it were just about the "miracle of birth," it probably would have fizzled out after three seasons. Instead, it has become a cultural juggernaut.
The show works because it’s gritty. You’ve got the gorgeous 1950s and 60s aesthetics—the tea dresses, the bicycles, the vintage prams—clashing violently with the reality of poverty. It’s a world of external toilets, coal dust, and overcrowded tenements.
Why do we keep coming back?
Maybe it’s because the show treats midwifery as a high-stakes thriller. Or maybe it’s the way it handles social history without feeling like a dusty textbook. Whatever the reason, Call the Midwife has outlasted nearly every other period drama of its era. It survived the departure of its original lead, Jessica Raine (Jenny Lee), and somehow got even stronger by leaning into its ensemble cast.
The Real Woman Behind the Fiction
Most fans know the show is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth. But here is what most people get wrong: the books are significantly darker than the television series.
Jennifer Lee (later Worth) arrived in Docklands in the early 1950s. She wasn't a seasoned activist. She was a young woman from a sheltered background who was absolutely shell-shocked by what she found. The real Nonnatus House was actually the Community of St. John the Divine. These were real Anglican nuns who had been working in the East End since the 1880s.
Worth’s writing captures a London that was still reeling from the Blitz. There were bomb sites everywhere. There was no hot running water for most families. When you watch the show, the "call of the midwife" is literal—a frantic knock on a door or a shout up a stairwell. There were no cell phones. If a delivery went sideways, a nurse had to run to the nearest phone box, hoping she had a penny and that the line wasn't dead.
Accuracy Matters
Heidi Thomas, the show’s creator and primary writer, is famously obsessive about medical accuracy. She doesn't just make things up for drama. The production employs a lead midwifery officer, Terri Coates, who was actually the person who inspired Jennifer Worth to write her memoirs in the first place.
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Every birth on screen is choreographed to look like a real clinical procedure from that specific year. If it’s 1962, they use 1962 techniques. If a new sedative like Thalidomide is introduced into the script, it’s because that was the exact moment it started appearing in British medical cabinets.
This commitment to the "call" of the profession is why real-life midwives generally love the show. It respects the craft. It shows the exhaustion. It shows the blood.
Changing the National Conversation
It’s easy to dismiss this as "cozy TV." That's a mistake. Call the Midwife has tackled some of the most taboo subjects in British broadcasting history.
Remember the Thalidomide arc? It wasn't just a one-off "very special episode." It spanned multiple seasons, showing the long-term impact on families and the medical community’s slow, horrifying realization that a "wonder drug" was causing severe birth defects.
The show has covered:
- Female genital mutilation (FGM)
- Illegal abortion before the 1967 Act
- The introduction of the contraceptive pill
- Racism faced by the Windrush generation within the NHS
- The decriminalization of homosexuality
It handles these topics with a specific kind of grace. It doesn’t preach from a 2026 perspective. Instead, it stays rooted in the characters' 1960s mindsets, which often makes the tragedies feel more poignant. When Nurse Crane or Sister Julienne encounters a "fallen woman," they struggle with their own prejudices while still providing care. It’s human. It’s messy.
The Evolution of Nonnatus House
The cast has changed more times than we can count. We lost Chummy (Miranda Hart), which felt like a death in the family. We lost Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris), which was even worse. But the show’s ability to cycle in new faces like Nurse Trixie Franklin (Helen George) and Nurse Phyllis Crane (Linda Bassett) has kept the energy high.
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Trixie, in particular, has had one of the best character arcs in modern television. She started as the "pretty blonde" interested in gin and high fashion. Over the years, we’ve watched her battle alcoholism, fight for women’s reproductive rights, and deal with agonizing personal loss. She’s the heart of the show’s modern era.
Then there is the Turner family. Dr. Patrick Turner and Nurse Shelagh Turner represent the shift from the old Victorian way of doing things to the modern National Health Service (NHS). Their domestic life provides a soft place for the audience to land after a particularly harrowing birth scene.
Why the "Call" Still Resonates
We live in an era of digital disconnection. Call the Midwife highlights a time when your neighbor was your lifeline. The midwives aren't just medical professionals; they are social workers, counselors, and friends.
The show reminds us that the NHS was a revolutionary idea. Before 1948, if you couldn't pay the "shilling on the mantlepiece," you didn't get a doctor. You just suffered. The show is, at its core, a love letter to public healthcare. It’s a reminder of what we stand to lose if we stop caring for the most vulnerable.
Not Just for Grandma
There’s a weird stigma that only older women watch this show. The data says otherwise. It consistently ranks as one of the most-watched programs for all demographics in the UK and does massive numbers on PBS in the States and Netflix globally.
Younger viewers are drawn to the feminist undertones. This is a show where women are the protagonists, the experts, and the moral center. The men—like Fred Buckle or PC Noakes—are wonderful, but they are supporting characters in a female world. That’s still surprisingly rare in prestige TV.
What Most People Miss About the Production
The filming takes place largely at The Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent. When you see those cobblestone streets and the towering brick walls, you’re looking at a site that has been preserved to look like 19th and 20th-century London.
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The production team actually uses real newborns. Well, mostly. They use babies that are as young as the law allows (usually at least 15 days old), and for the "messier" moments, they use incredibly lifelike animatronics smeared with grape jelly and silicone.
It’s this attention to the visceral reality of birth that prevents the show from becoming too sugary. For every wedding or christening, there’s a scene of a mother struggling with postpartum psychosis or a family living in a room infested with rats.
Practical Ways to Experience the History
If you're a superfan of Call the Midwife, you don't just have to watch it on a screen. The history it covers is accessible and deeply relevant today.
- Visit the Chatham Dockyard: They offer official location tours. You can walk the same streets as Trixie and Sister Monica Joan. It’s eerie how much it feels like the 1960s once the film crew sets up.
- Read the Original Trilogy: Jennifer Worth’s books (Call the Midwife, Shadows of the Workhouse, and Farewell to the East End) provide much more context on the "Workhouse ghost" and the lingering trauma of the Victorian era.
- Explore the Museum of London Docklands: If you want to understand why the East End was the way it was, this museum explains the shipping industry and the poverty that defined the lives of the people the midwives served.
- Support Modern Midwifery: The show often partners with charities. Organizations like the Royal College of Midwives continue the work shown on screen. The "call" hasn't stopped; it has just changed form.
The show is currently commissioned through Season 15, which will take the story into the 1970s. We’re going to see the dawn of a new era—disco, strikes, and even more medical advancement. But the core will remain. A bike, a medical bag, and a knock on the door.
To truly understand the impact of the show, look at the birth rates in the UK following the premiere of a new season. There is often a spike in people applying to midwifery school. That is the ultimate legacy of the show. It didn't just entertain; it inspired a new generation to answer the call.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Historians:
- Watch for the "Medical Firsts": Keep a list of the medical milestones mentioned, like the first gas and air machines or the introduction of the measles vaccine. It’s a great way to track the timeline of the 20th century.
- Check the Credits: Look for the historical consultants. Many of the stories are culled from real letters sent in by viewers who lived through these events.
- Contextualize the Religion: Understand that the Anglican sisters were a specific choice by Worth. Their presence explains the tension between traditional morality and the burgeoning sexual revolution of the 60s.
The story of Nonnatus House is far from over. As long as there are stories about how we enter this world, there will be an audience for the nurses who help us get here.