Get ready for Season 8 of Call the Midwife
The most-watched programme on Christmas Day was Call The Midwife on BBC1, with a TV audience of 8.7 million.
Series eight arrives on Sunday, bringing new cast members including Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes, who made her first appearance in the festive episode.
One thing we’ve learned from Series 1-7 is that Call the Midwife never shies away from addressing important issues in whichever time period it is set – from the thalidomide scandal to the challenges faced by immigrants making a new life in London.
Helen George who plays Trixie is back after her break from filming to give birth to daughter Wren Ivy in September 2017.
Jack Ashton and Helen George have a baby daughter
She said she missed her cast-mates while she was away and that when she returned to the set to play a midwife she felt “a bit more motherly”.
Call The Midwife star Jennifer Kirby revealed she still cries at childbirth scenes
Jennifer Kirby plays Nurse Valerie Dyer in Call The Midwife, which features nurse midwives working in London’s East End in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Kirby said she still gets emotional watching birth scenes.
Meet some new cast members –
Season eight will pick up with the women of Nonnatus House still feeling the impact of Nurse Barbara Hereward’s shock death, which devastated fans in series seven. Speaking about how Barbara’s death affects the new episodes, Nurse Valerie Dyer actor Jennifer Kirby said
“It’s not easily got over, you never get over something like that but one thing we talked about a lot was that grief manifests itself in lots of different ways. The thing with Call The Midwife is that although it’s very emotional and in touch with the sadder side of things, it’s very hopeful as well so you see all of the characters dealing with it in their own way.
“The spirit of Barbara continues throughout the series through all of us. In a way the loss of somebody like that breathes new life into the thing as a whole because everybody realises that they need to seize the moment and take her spirit and warm, loving energy throughout the series.”
At the start of series eight, it’s spring time in 1964 and everyone is excited for the Queen’s Royal birth. Violet is holding a Teddy Bears’ Picnic and raising funds through a competition on whether the Queen will have a boy or a girl. With the additions of the two new Sisters, who have been sent to live and work with the team in Poplar, Nonnatus House feels full once more.
The show will return for its eighth series on Sunday 13th January, when the nurses at Nonnatus House will be grappling with the issues of the 1960s.
Will you be tuning in?
The Press Association
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