It’s easy to forget how much of a gamble it was back in 2012. A show about nuns and midwifery in the 1950s East End of London? It sounded like a recipe for a sleepy, Sunday night period drama that your grandmother might watch while knitting. But when Call the Midwife Season 1 premiered, it didn't just find an audience; it shattered expectations. It was gritty. It was bloody. Honestly, it was a bit of a shock to the system for a BBC primetime slot.
Jenny Worth’s memoirs provided the backbone, but the execution by Heidi Thomas turned it into something visceral. You aren’t just watching a show about babies. You’re watching a show about a post-war Britain that was still literally crumbling, where the National Health Service was a newborn itself, and where the "good old days" were actually defined by crushing poverty and a lack of reproductive agency.
The Raw Reality of Poplar in 1957
Most people remember the bike rides and the crisp white pinafores. What they forget about Call the Midwife Season 1 is the stench. Or at least, the implied stench. The production design didn't shy away from the soot of the docks or the cramped, damp-streaked walls of the tenements.
Take the first episode. Jenny Lee, played with a perfect sort of naive stiffness by Jessica Raine, arrives at Nonnatus House. She thinks she’s joining a private hospital. Instead, she’s greeted by the eccentric Sister Monica Joan and a world where "distressed" doesn't even begin to cover the living conditions.
The show grounded itself in the clinical. It wasn't interested in a sanitized version of birth. We saw the sweat, the panic, and the sheer physical toll of having twenty-five children—a real plot point involving the character Conchita Warren. That specific storyline remains one of the most powerful in the show's entire run. Conchita didn't speak English, yet she and Jenny formed a bond through the universal, messy language of childbirth. It was a masterclass in showing, not telling, how the NHS was meant to bridge the gap between classes and cultures.
Why the Characters of Nonnatus House Worked
The chemistry wasn't immediate, but it was deep. You had the midwives—Jenny, Trixie, and Cynthia—living alongside the sisters of St. Raymond Nonnatus.
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Chummy Noakes. Let's talk about Chummy. Miranda Hart was a comedian known for slapstick, and her casting felt like a risk. But Chummy became the soul of the first season. Her struggle with her own height, her overbearing mother, and her complete lack of physical grace made her the ultimate underdog. When she finally masters that bicycle? It’s a genuine "cheer at the screen" moment. It wasn't just about riding a bike; it was about claiming space in a world that told her she was too clumsy to exist.
- Sister Bernadette: (Later Shelagh Turner) started as the most intellectual and seemingly settled of the nuns. Looking back at Season 1, you can see the tiny fractures in her vocation already forming, though we didn't know it yet.
- Trixie Franklin: Initially dismissed as the "flirty one," Helen George gave Trixie a backbone of steel from day one. She was the one who knew how to handle the rougher elements of the docks without blinking.
- Sister Evangelina: Pam Ferris was a force of nature. A woman from the same slums she served, she provided the necessary friction against the more "refined" midwives.
The balance worked because the stakes were life and death every single week. There was no filler.
Breaking the Taboos of 1950s Television
Call the Midwife Season 1 did something sneaky. It used the cover of a "cozy drama" to smuggle in radical conversations. This wasn't just about happy endings. It dealt with illegal abortions, the haunting legacy of the workhouses, and the reality of domestic abuse in a time when the police often looked the other way.
The episode involving the "Spanish" woman, Conchita, mentioned earlier, highlighted the sheer resilience of the human body. But then you have the darker threads, like the story of Mary, a young girl forced into prostitution who has her baby taken away. It was heartbreaking. It still is. The show forced a modern audience to reckon with the fact that, within living memory, women had almost no rights over their own bodies or their children's fates.
The Technical Brilliance Nobody Talks About
We need to give credit to the cinematography and the score. The music by Peter Salem, especially that title theme, carries a sense of nostalgia that is somehow both mournful and hopeful.
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The lighting in Season 1 was distinct. It felt colder than the later, more colorful seasons. There was a grayness to the East End that felt authentic to the "Smog" era of London. The costumes weren't just costumes; they were uniforms in a literal war against infection and infant mortality. When the midwives put on those blue coats, it felt like they were donning armor.
Common Misconceptions About the First Season
A lot of people think the show started out as a lighthearted romp. It didn't. If you go back and rewatch it, the first six episodes are surprisingly grim.
Another misconception is that it's "just for women." While the focus is undeniably on the female experience, the portrayal of the men—like the stoic but kind Fred Buckle or the gentle PC Noakes—offered a nuanced look at masculinity in a post-war setting. These were men trying to find their place in a world that was rapidly changing, supporting a system (the NHS) that many didn't yet trust.
The Impact of the NHS Backdrop
You can't separate Call the Midwife Season 1 from the politics of the time. 1957 was less than a decade after the inception of the NHS. The midwives were the "front line" before that was a buzzword.
They were teaching mothers about basic hygiene and nutrition in a way that wasn't condescending but essential. The show brilliantly captures the transition from "hand-me-down" folk medicine to modern clinical practice. Seeing the midwives boil their glass syringes and scrub their nails with brushes emphasizes just how much work went into preventing the infections that had killed previous generations.
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How to Revisit Season 1 for the Best Experience
If you’re planning a rewatch or diving in for the first time, don't just binge it in the background. It’s a dense show.
- Watch for the Background Details: Look at the posters on the walls of the clinics. They are historically accurate health warnings about tuberculosis and polio.
- Follow Chummy’s Arc: It’s arguably the most complete character journey in a single season of television.
- Read the Book: Jennifer Worth’s Call the Midwife is much darker than the show. Reading it alongside Season 1 helps you appreciate the "softening" the BBC did while still keeping the core message intact.
- Pay Attention to Sister Monica Joan’s Quotes: Her "ramblings" are usually deeply prophetic or provide the philosophical framework for the episode’s theme.
The show isn't just about birth. It's about the community that forms when people are at their most vulnerable. That’s why it stuck. That’s why it’s still on the air.
Practical Next Steps for Fans
To truly appreciate the historical context of Call the Midwife Season 1, visit the Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent. This is where most of the exterior street scenes are filmed. Walking the "London" streets of the set provides a physical sense of the scale and the atmosphere the show captures.
Additionally, check out the archives of the Royal College of Midwives. They have digital exhibits that showcase the actual kits and uniforms used by district midwives in the late 1950s. Comparing the real-life tools to the ones used by Jenny Lee in the show highlights the incredible attention to detail the production team maintained. Finally, if you want to understand the real East End, look up the photography of Nick Hedges or Bert Hardy, whose work in the 1950s clearly influenced the visual palette of the series.