'Call the Midwife' Season 15 May Be Delayed in Favor of Spinoffs

Somewhere around Call the Midwife Season 10, as the show reached the later 1960s and the legalization of abortion and the decriminalization of homosexuality, we started joking that the show was going to need to start thinking about men they want to cast, as Season 19 would be set in 1975, the year men were allowed to become midwives for the first time. As the show had just reached double digits, it seemed unlikely the series would go that long, especially since the pandemic had delayed filming, and the future of many shows was in doubt. However, with the impending debut of Season 14, set in 1970, with 15 already greenlit and the series showing no signs of flagging, suddenly reaching the mid-1970s no longer seems like a joke but a reality. Unsurprisingly, series creator Heidi Thomas has also realized how far the show might last if she chooses to keep making it. To that end, she has started publicly discussing a hiatus, though not, thank heavens, a series finale.

In a recent interview with the Radio Times on Season 14 (which concludes in the U.K. on March 2, 2025), Thomas was asked about the show's longevity and replied, "I don't believe Call the Midwife will ever end. But I do think we might take a break at some point."

Thomas quickly pointed out that she does not get to make that call and that discussions of possible endgame scenarios occur at this time every year. However, this year has taken a different turn: "Increasingly, we see opportunities to expand our storytelling world. So if we take a break, it will be with a view to looking at other aspects of Call the Midwife." To translate that to layman's terms, the production is considering Call the Midwife spinoffs.

No one should be surprised that the BBC series is considering expanding into a Midwife-interconnected universe. Thus far, two of the BBC's long-running series — Father Brown and Death in Paradise — launched around the same time as Call the Midwife and have successfully launched spinoff series, both of which are now staples of BritBox in the U.S.: Sister Boniface Mysteries and Beyond Paradise. (The latter has been so successful that the "Para-verse" has gone full franchise with the Australian-set Return to Paradise.) BritBox would absolutely love to have a Midwife series to call its own; currently, it's stuck streaming seasons a full year after they air on PBS and after it's already streamed on Netflix for several months. The BBC might have doubted the idea when BritBox launched Sister Boniface, letting the series go to competitor UKTV. However, the British Broadcaster has seen the light, with Beyond Paradise simultaneously launching on both sides of the pond.

Whether or not a Call the Midwife spinoff would be free to stream elsewhere or would automatically air on PBS is unknown.* But what is certain is that Thomas would not be able to do both at the same time. As it is, the series needed to move house a few years back when Netflix bought out the studio where it had filmed for over a decade. If a spinoff is currently under serious consideration, it would mean putting the already commissioned Season 15 on the back burner for at least a year, leaving American fans with no guarantee of Midwifing of any sort in 2026. 

When pressed, Thomas only replied, "Watch this space" for more details. We will be watching very carefully, but let's be honest: Who here doesn't want a Sister Monica Joan prequel set in the depths of the London Blitz?

(*We reached out to PBS for comment on this story but had not heard back by press time. We will update if and when we hear back.)

Call the Midwife Season 14 premieres on PBS Passport for members beginning Friday, February 28, 2025, and will follow a weekly release schedule. It will follow on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel on Sunday, March 30, 2025, at 8 p.m. ET. (That's one week later than Wolf Hall: The Mirror & The Light, which debuts on Sunday, March 23.) 

Season 14 of Call The Midwife will stream weekly on PBS Passport from February 28 until mid-April. The series will stream on the PBS app and the PBS Masterpiece Channel through mid-May. As always, check your local listings.