NOW ENTERTAINMENT
March 2025 Month3000- April - 00,5,2023
Your Weekly TV Entertainment Brought To You By Olean Times Herald & The Bradford Era
BBC series “Call the Midwife” ushers in the 1970s in Poplar when it premieres Season 14 in North America Sunday, March 30, on PBS. Laura Main, Stephen McGann and Annabelle Apsion in “Call the Midwife”
Cover Story Nuns, nurses and Nonnatus: ‘Call the Midwife’ returns to PBS for 14th season By Dana Simpson When it comes to long-running scripted British television series, several titles rush to mind. From popular sci-fi/fantasy series “Doctor Who,” which boasts 40 complete seasons and several specials since its premiere in November 1963, to ongoing ensemble cast series like “EastEnders” (40 seasons), “Emmerdale” (54 seasons) and “Coronation Street” (66 seasons), it is clear that the U.K. has a lush culture of appointment television, which remains alive and well to this day. Another series that appears to be joining the U.K.’s ranks of long-running televised content is “Call the Midwife,” the medical period drama that began its run on BBC One in 2012. Headed into its 14th season on Sunday, March 30 — a number of seasons that would border on astounding in nearly any other market — “Call the Midwife” is available to watch on PBS or to stream via the PBS Passport streaming service. For those who hold a BritBox subscription, Season 14 of “Call the Midwife”
has been available since its U.K. premiere in January. “Call the Midwife” focuses on “the nurses, midwives and nuns from Nonnatus House,” reads the official PBS description, “who visit the expectant mothers of Poplar, providing the poorest women with the best possible care.” The series is based on the memoirs of the late British nurse Jennifer Worth, who practiced in one of East London’s most impoverished areas in the 1950s. And while the BBC series began its first season set in 1957, 14 seasons later the women of Poplar are ushering in a new era: the 1970s. According to PBS, in this newest season, “chaos erupts as the Isle of Dogs bid for independence. Amid the turmoil, the midwives work tirelessly to keep Nonnatus House running while addressing complex social and health challenges.” While looking ahead to the excitement and challenges of portraying another new decade within the series, Thomas reflected that “we are a family behind the scenes, on the screen and in
front of the telly, and I’m thrilled that we’re all heading into the 1970s together.” To call the cast of “Call the Midwife” a “family” is hardly an overstatement, as much of the cast has returned year after year to tell the many harrowing medical tales of the women in the community of Poplar. From attending to teenaged, geriatric and complicated pregnancies of all kinds, to other on-the-job duties such as caring for patients with sexually transmitted diseases, psychiatric illnesses and those who require emergency attention, there is hardly much time left for the women of Nonnatus House to have to any sort of personal life. Nevertheless, Season 14 sees plenty of out-of-office romance, protests and personal troubles for these hardworking women. Returning to the screen for the series’ 14th season are Judy Parfitt (“Ever After: A Cinderella Story,” 1998), Rebecca Gethings (“The Thick of It”) and Jenny Agutter (“An American Werewolf in London,” 1981) as Sisters Monica Joan, Veronica and Juli-
enne, respectively; Linda Bassett (“Kinky Boots,” 2005) as Nurse Crane; Laura Main (“Murder City”) as Shelagh Turner; Helen George (“The Three Musketeers,” 2011) as Trixie Aylward; Megan Cusack (“The Cherry Orchard,” 2020), who is scheduled to leave before Season 15, and emerging talent Francesca Fullilove as Nancy and Colette Corrigan. Also returning are Cliff Parisi (“From Hell,” 2001) and Annabelle Apsion (“Lolita,” 1997) as Fred and Violet Buckle, alongside Stephen McGann (“Emmerdale Farm”) as Dr. Turner and Georgie Glen (“Waterloo Road”) as Miss Higgins. Andrea Irvine (“Red Rock”), meanwhile, joins the cast as Esther Noble. Likewise, Trinidadian-born midwife Joyce Highland (Renee Bailey, “Rebel Cheer Squad: A Get Even Series”), who joined the cast of characters last season as a midwifery pupil and is now a full-fledged English nurse, returns to the cast alongside this season’s newest member: nun and midwife Sister Catherine, a nun in training played by Molly Vevers (“The Rig”).