'Call The Midwife' Wraps Filming, Sets Christmas Special Date for PBS

The holidays are officially here, and not just because this is the week of American Thanksgiving. Call the Midwife's production studio, Neal Street, took to social media to announce the conclusion of filming the 2024 Christmas special and Season 15. For U.K. and U.S. viewers alike, that means the yearly return to Poplar for the holidays is officially on, with the rest of the season arriving after the New Year, January for the BBC, and then sometime around March (when the season concludes in the U.K.) on PBS. The American broadcaster also confirmed that the supersized holiday special, which will run as two episodes, would arrive on Christmas Day with both parts.

This is Call The Midwife's first two-hour "Festive Special" (as they are referred to in the U.K.), a new milestone for the series, which has been airing one-hour holiday editions since it first premiered in 2012. But Season 15 marks a new era for the period drama, crossing into the 1970s, quite a feat for a show initially set in 1957. When the series hit 1960 in Season 4, it was also a big deal, but more because the original lead actor (Jessica Raine, who played Nurse Jenny Lee) exited the series at the end of Season 3. The show's first season to weather significant casting turnover overshadowed the arrival of a new decade.

But heading into the 1970s is different. Hitting 1960 was a given after the show's first season was an international hit on both sides of the pond. However, no one thought the show would run so long that it would reach the 1970s, a decade in which, among other things, men legally became eligible to work as midwives.

Here's PBS's synopsis for the two-part Christmas episode:

It’s Christmas 1969, and the Funfair and Carol concert add color to Frosty Poplar. Yet, the festive spirit at Nonnatus House is dampened by the spread of influenza alongside growing fears of an escaped prisoner after a spate of break-ins. 

As always, Call the Midwife will star 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, Megan Cusack as Nancy Corrigan, 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, Alice Brown as Angela Turner, Francesca Fullilove as Colette Corrigan, April Rae Hoang as May Tang and Edward Shaw as Teddy Turner.

Call the Midwife 2024's two-part holiday special will debut on PBS, the PBS app, the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel, and PBS Passport on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET, with the second episode following directly after at 9 p.m. ET. Season 15 will follow in early 2025. Seasons 10-14 are available to stream for members on PBS Passport, with their holiday specials arriving to join them on November 25, 2024. (Seasons 1-9 are available on Netflix in the U.S.)