Renewed: Call the Midwife

UK period drama Call The Midwife has been renewed for three -count them 1, 2, 3- more seasons.

Series seven, eight and nine, will consist of three 8×60 episodes and three Christmas specials, taking the nuns and midwives right into the mid-1960s.

Pippa Harris, Executive Producer for Neal Street Productions, says: “Like a truly supportive parent, the BBC has nurtured our series from conception onwards, and this exceptional three-series commission further demonstrates their care and commitment. It’s a testament too to the passion, skill and creativity of Heidi Thomas, and to the dedication, talent and brilliance of our cast and crew.”

Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content, says: “I’m privileged to have Britain’s most popular drama series on BBC One, and this new three-series commission underlines our commitment to the show. Call The Midwife continues to raise the bar with each new series and is really valued by audiences. The quality and ambition of the storytelling is credit to the excellence of writer Heidi Thomas, who has successfully brought the show into the 1960s with a diverse range of subjects.”

Heidi Thomas, Creator, Writer and Executive Producer, says “I am hugely excited by the prospect of creating three more series of Call The Midwife. In the 1960s Britain was a country fizzing with change and challenge, and there is so much rich material – medical, social, and emotional – to be explored. We have now delivered well over one hundred babies on screen, and like those babies, the stories keep on coming! Above all else, it is an incredible privilege to work on a show that is made with such care and received with such love.”

A Christmas Special, which will be fast-tracked to BBC First in Australia, will return briefly to Poplar before the residents of Nonnatus House are transported to the Eastern Cape of South Africa. After receiving an SOS call from Hope Clinic, a tiny mission hospital which is understaffed, underfunded, and with a poor water supply, they soon learn that the struggling clinic is faced with closure.

Series six will follow in early 2017.