'Call the Midwife' Season 14's Trailer Brings Protests to Poplar

Christmas comes but once a year, and as soon as it's over, the entire Western world suddenly drops everything and rushes pell-mell over the cliff into the new year. Sure, the two holidays are a single week apart, and for many, this week is the one that doesn't quite ever gel properly. (That's especially true of years like this, where Christmas and New Year arrive on Wednesdays, effectively obliterating two weeks instead of just one.) However, one benefit of the forward-looking rush is that most Christmas specials are followed by trailers for next year's season, including Call The Midwife, which returns to the BBC right after the holiday.

The 2024 Christmas episode was a supersized helping of the final hurrah of the 1960s, but it was also necessary, as the show is at its own crossroads. When Jessica Raine, the show's original lead, exited the program at the end of Season 3, the series refocused on two characters: Helen George as the lovelorn Trixie Franklin and Laura Main as Sister Bernadette, who had just given up the cloth to marry Dr. Turner (Stephen McGann) and returned to using her given name, Shelagh Turner.

The Turner family is now an extensive clan, and Main continues to help anchor the ensemble. But Trixie became the show's breakout character as the perpetually single 1960s-era party girl and clothes horse. A decade later, her life changed: She's married, has an adopted son, and has a family that moved to America. Meanwhile, a new, perpetually single 20-something clotheshorse, Nurse Nancy (Megan Cusack), has joined the series. Giving the holiday edition two hours gave the show time to give both characters time in the spotlight, making their transitions to their new roles smoother.