There is a lot more ‘Call the Midwife‘ coming in the future! Not only are Season 15 and a two-part Christmas Special in production, but the BBC and PBS have also ordered Season 16, a film and a prequel series!
The two-part Christmas Special is set in Hong Kong and Poplar. 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 season 15. The new season 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.
The expansion to the world of Nonnatus House will see a prequel TV series set in Poplar during World War Two made for the BBC in 2026. In addition, production company Neal Street, in development with BBC Film, are producing a ‘Call the Midwife’ film. This will be set overseas in 1972 and feature iconic characters from the existing TV show.
The new projects will be written, created and produced by the formidable, all-female team behind the hugely successful current hit TV show – showrunner Heidi Thomas and executive producers Pippa Harris and Ann Tricklebank, who also produces. They will helm Season 16 together in due course.
“The opening of new doors at Nonnatus House feels profoundly emotional, and yet just right,” said Heidi Thomas OBE, creator and writer. “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!”
This year’s season of Call the Midwife averaged 7.8 million viewers, making it one of the UK’s biggest drama series across all channels and streamers. The 2024 Christmas special, part one, was the festive period’s most-watched drama episode, with 8.9 million viewers.
Further details about Neal Street’s Call the Midwife prequel TV series for the BBC and the film with BBC Film will be released later this year.
“Call the Midwife has been a jewel in the BBC’s crown for well over a decade, and this feels like the perfect time to further expand on the glorious, perfectly realised world that Heidi, Pippa, Annie and the team have created for the show’s millions of passionate and dedicated viewers,” adds Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama. “Whether you’ve been watching from the very start or joined us for one of the more recent series, this is an incredibly exciting time to be a Call the Midwife fan.”
Regular cast returning for the new series now filming are Judy Parfitt as Sister Monica Joan, Jenny Agutter as Sister Julienne, Laura Main as Shelagh Turner, Helen George as Trixie Aylward, Cliff Parisi as Fred Buckle, Stephen McGann as Dr Turner, Linda Bassett as Nurse Crane, Annabelle Apsion as Violet Buckle, Georgie Glen as Miss Higgins, Zephryn Taitte as Cyril Robinson, Rebecca Gethings as Sister Veronica, Daniel Laurie as Reggie Jackson, Renee Bailey as Joyce Highland, Natalie Quarry as Rosalind Clifford, Molly Vevers as Sister Catherine, Max Macmillan as Timothy Turner, Alice Brown as Angela Turner, April Rae Hoang as May Tang and Edward Shaw as Teddy Turner.
Commissioned by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, Call the Midwife is made by All3Media’s Neal Street for the BBC in co-production with PBS. The series is created, written and executive produced by Heidi Thomas, executive produced by Pippa Harris, for Neal Street, and Ann Tricklebank who also serves as producer. Gaynor Holmes is the executive producer for the BBC. The first series of Call the Midwife was originally inspired by Jennifer Worth’s books of the same name. BBC Studios distribute Call the Midwife globally and have sold the series to over 260 territories worldwide and counting.
‘Call the Midwife‘ will return for a 2-part Christmas special in December 2025, followed by Season 15 in Early 2026. If you want to keep track of this or any other show, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when they get a UK premiere date.
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