'Call the Midwife' Teases 2024 Special & Season 14 in New Photos

The trend of advancing a period piece series forward one year per season was not new when Call The Midwife began using it over a decade ago, but the ubiquity of the BBC's hit —which started in the late 1950s with Season 1 and will now cross in the 1970s with Season 14 — turned it into a leading example of the format. It's the perfect way to handle an ensemble soap opera that does not air year-round, allowing the long-term actors to age gracefully, giving each season a few historical moments to center episodes around, and letting the designers update wardrobes and set as the series goes on.

However, nothing (and I mean nothing) quite marks the passage of time as the children. Though Call The Midwife could rightly be called a "baby of the week" series, most of those newborns are one-and-done appearances, heading home with the episode's guest star upon the installment's conclusion. That being said, the series has family units, be it the Buckles or the Alwyns. The Turner clan is the most extensive, a blended mix of siblings, with parents Patrick (Stephen McGann) and Shelagh (Laura Main) raising Timothy, Angela, May, and Edward Turner.

Fans who have watched since the first season have watched actor Max Macmillan grow up on the show as Timothy, going from grade school imp to university student. The same is currently true of Alice Brown and April Rae Hong, who portray the Turners' adopted daughters, 10-year-old Angela and 9-year-old May, respectively. Then there's Edward, who everyone calls Teddy, age seven, played by Ned Shaw for the last few seasons. As these child actors grow up on set, they learn all the different aspects of creating TV, apparently including directing. They also welcome any new child actor into their ranks, including a new arrival for the Christmas special, Myla Park.