'Call The Midwife's 2023 Christmas Special Brings Hope to Those Who Need It Most

As Call The Midwife returns for its annual holiday tradition ahead of the Season 13 debut, it’s Christmas 1968, and Poplar is abuzz with holiday excitement. There are two new occupants at Nonnatus House, Nurse Nancy Corrigan and her daughter Colette. Nancy was almost lured away by a new job that offered housing, and Sister Julienne found this, the simplest of solutions to mother and daughter living together. Nancy and Colette are thrilled and anticipate a wonderful Christmas in their new space.

The Turners, with their brood of children, are also dealing with Christmas expectations. The children are all thrilled at the impending launch of Apollo 8, and her daughter Angela (Alice Brown) has asked for a telescope for Christmas. Teddy (Edward Shaw) wants a tortoise for Christmas, which is a bit problematic since tortoises want to hibernate, and there’s a moment of panic when Timothy, home from university, is afraid the critter is dead. Shelagh is horrified at the thought of her child unwrapping a dead reptile and appoints Miss Higgins as its official guardian. The tortoise is moved to a cozy spot in a box under her desk, with a supply of lettuce to keep it awake. 

Miss Higgins is busy finding new clinic space in the neighborhood and not happy about her additional responsibility. Shelagh, however, is also concerned about a package for her daughter May Tang (April Rae Hoang) from Hong Kong. The Turners have not yet been able to formally adopt May Tang, and her birth mother in Hong Kong is bad at keeping in touch. Shelagh doesn’t want to see her daughter hurt and finally opens the package to find a dress that is far too small. She gets to work and remakes the dress. 

But Christmas is not necessarily a happy time for everyone. Matthew Aylward is tidying up the loose ends of his father’s property business and hating every minute of it as he evicts tenants from condemned buildings with the help of Cyril Robinson and a bailiff. An elderly Asian man, Kulvir Sharma (Kulvinda Gair), reluctantly but with great dignity, leaves his basement apartment, which is flooded and without heat or light. He claims he has somewhere to go, but the following day, he’s waiting outside a shop to buy food for his cat. It’s only a matter of time before he breaks back into the apartment. Worse, it’s cold and snowing. 

Cyril, suspecting Mr. Sharma has returned, calls round with a box of food that includes a welcome treat, a fresh pineapple. They share it and reminisce about exotic foods from home. During World War II, Mr. Sharma served in the RAF as a navigator, and a photograph of his unit is one of his most treasured possessions. (“We fought like lions!”) But Cyril is very concerned about the cold, damp, bug-infested apartment. He returns with an insecticide to wash down the walls, which are crawling with bugs.

Mr. Sharma asks if Cyril will leave it with him, as he wants to do some self-treatment on his ulcered legs. Upon seeing them, Cyril tries to persuade Sharma to let Dr. Turner come to call. Mr. Sharma refuses, although he allows Sister Veronica to clean and bandage his legs. Things come to a head when he collapses outside and is diagnosed with diabetes, but he escapes the hospital and finds his way home in the falling snow.

Over at Nonnatus House, Sister Monica Joan declares this to be her last Christmas, despite everyone’s insistence that she’s good for a few decades more. Dr. Turner diagnoses depression; what she needs, he says, is someone to prompt her to remember happier times. Luckily, Nonnatus has a pint-sized therapist in residence: Colette. Sister Monica Joan opens up to her, and shares lovely memories of driving to church in a pony trap with her mother, where a living tableau of the Nativity, with real animals and people in costume, was displayed. It was based on a Belgian painting, and Sister Monica Joan remembers that somehow light from the cradle illuminated the scene. 

Making it doubly poignant, it’s one of her last memories of her mother. Somehow the idea catches on that the Nonnatus community should set up a similar event, live animals and all, to cheer up Sister Monica Joan, and Colette is prompted to find as much information as she can about the tableau. Sister Veronica, who starts the process, finds there is someone on hand who has the theatrical background, time, and contacts to mastermind the event — Geoffrey Franklin (Christopher Harper), who organized his sister’s wedding. 

As fond as Trixie is of her brother, she wasn’t expecting him to turn up two days after she and Matthew returned from their honeymoon; Geoffrey is yet another lost soul this Christmas, with the implication he broke up with a boyfriend who is getting married. He’s also job-hunting, having left his osteopathy practice in Malta, and may have a chance at a Harley Street practice. Matthew, looking forward to time at home with Trixie, resigns himself to writing wedding thank-you letters while his wife and her brother sprinkle fabulousness around for a few days until Geoffrey seeks somewhere else to stay.

Fred Buckle, the community’s official Father Christmas, is worried about being recognized as an impostor. Violet is more concerned the tableau will require dozens of costumes. Geoffrey uses his showbiz contacts to borrow from Ealing Studios and even finds an ox and a donkey. However, Reggie insists he doesn’t want to be a shepherd but an angel because angels are important. Geoffrey finds a painting that was the tableau's original inspiration, where the angels’ features resemble those of a person with Down syndrome; Reggie has found his role.

In case you were wondering, babies are still being born: Brenda (Libby Rodliffe) and her husband Vincent (George Howard) are finally about to have twins after trying for years, thanks to specialist surgeon Mr. Mathers (Dugald Bruce-Lockhart), who has been dabbling with fertility issues. At a surgery visit, Brenda’s mum points out a former classmate, also close to going into labor, Toni Douglas (Beth Dillon). Brenda remembers her as being a snob and a bully at school. When Toni goes into labor, attended by Shelagh Turner, it's revealed her entire family was killed in one of the worst civilian disasters of World War II, the Bethnal Green Tube disaster. 

She was raised by a friend of her mother, who died when Toni was sixteen. Her boyfriend is at sea with the Merchant Navy. (Very sensibly, Miss Higgins posts a note on Toni’s front door in case he shows up there.) Shelagh calls for assistance from Dr. Turner when the delivery requires intervention. The baby is exhibiting signs of fetal distress, with the umbilical cord compressed, and requires an episiotomy and the use of forceps. But the baby, a boy, is born safely. Back on the ward, Toni finds Brenda has been admitted, crying, suspecting something is wrong. Toni offers to let her hold her new baby. 

Dr. Mathers orders Brenda to be taken by ambulance to the hospital where he practices. By now, it’s snowing heavily, and Baby Number One is born in transit, only for a car to run into the ambulance immediately. Bystanders help push the car out of the way as Brenda gives birth to Baby Number Two, who immediately needs oxygen. Her blood pressure is low, suggesting she may be bleeding. And then, surprise, surprise, Baby Number Three is born. By this time, Dr. Turner orders the ambulance to get to a hospital, any hospital, where Baby Number Four arrives. Dr. Mathers is pleased with the result of the fertility drugs. Brenda and Vincent are flabbergasted to find themselves with twice as many babies as they expected.

When Brenda is back at Nonnatus House, Toni, who’s been getting the hang of breastfeeding, offers extra milk for the quadruplets. To everyone’s surprise, the mythical boyfriend Mitchell (Caleb Frederick) shows up to meet his son. As the most recent full-term infant at Nonnatus, the baby is offered the starring role in the tableau, and there’s another surprising bit of casting: Mr. Sharma. He tells Cyril that he was dishonorably discharged from the RAF and was too ashamed to return to India following an explosion on the runway as his plane returned from a mission. Dr. Turner advises him to apply for help from the British Legion. There is hope and available help, and he and the cat must leave his unhealthy basement.

Sister Monica Joan joins a gaggle of children at the television shop window to see the launch of Apollo 8, and her interest in the earth and heavens are revived. On Christmas Eve, she is delighted to be invited to board a pony trap and to view the tableau. It has been one of the happiest Christmases of her long life. No series does the happy, teary conclusion better than Call The Midwife. Peace on earth!