Call the Midwife

Call the Midwife
Genre	Period drama
Created by	Heidi Thomas
Based on	Memoirs of Jennifer Worth
Starring	Current Jenny Agutter Judy Parfitt Helen George Laura Main Stephen McGann Cliff Parisi Linda Bassett Miriam Margolyes Annabelle Apsion Daniel Laurie Georgie Glen Zephryn Taitte Olly Rix Megan Cusack Rebecca Gethings Renee Bailey Natalie Quarry
Narrated by	Vanessa Redgrave
Composers	Peter Salem Maurizio Malagnini
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	13
No. of episodes	113 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Pippa Harris Heidi Thomas
Producer	Annie Tricklebank
Production location	Poplar, London
Cinematography	Chris Seager
Running time	60–90 minutes
Production company	Neal Street Productions
Original release
Network	BBC One (United Kingdom) PBS (United States)
Release	15 January 2012 (2012-01-15) – present
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Call the Midwife is a British period drama television series about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s and 1960s. The principal cast of the show has included Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart, Helen George, Bryony Hannah, Laura Main, Jenny Agutter, Pam Ferris, Judy Parfitt, Cliff Parisi, Stephen McGann, Ben Caplan, Daniel Laurie, Emerald Fennell, Victoria Yeates, Jack Ashton, Linda Bassett, Charlotte Ritchie, Kate Lamb, Jennifer Kirby, Annabelle Apsion and Leonie Elliott.

The series is produced by Neal Street Productions, a production company founded and owned by the film director and producer Sam Mendes, Call the Midwife executive producer Pippa Harris, and Caro Newling. The first series, set in 1957, premiered in the United Kingdom on 15 January 2012. The series was created by Heidi Thomas, originally based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth who worked with the Community of St. John the Divine, an Anglican religious order, at their convent in the East End in London. The order was founded as a nursing order in 1849. The show's storylines have extended beyond the memoirs to include new, historically sourced material.^[1] For the most part it depicts the day-to-day lives of the midwives and those in their local neighbourhood of Poplar, with certain historical events of the era having a direct or indirect effect on the characters and storylines.

Call the Midwife achieved high ratings in its first series, making it the most successful new drama series on BBC One since 2001.^[2] A total of twelve annual series, of eight episodes each, have aired subsequently year-on-year, along with an annual Christmas special broadcast every Christmas Day since 2012. A 13th series is being broadcast. It is also broadcast in the United States on the PBS network; the first series started on 30 September 2012.^[3]

Critical reception has been mostly positive, and the series has won numerous awards and nominations.^[4] It has been praised for tackling topical subjects and contemporary social, cultural and economic issues, including nationalised healthcare, infertility, teen pregnancy, adoption, the importance of local community, miscarriage and stillbirths, abortion and unwanted pregnancies, birth defects, poverty, common illnesses, epidemic disease, prostitution, incest, religion and faith, racism and prejudice, same-sex attraction and female genital mutilation. Some aspects of love—maternal, paternal, filial, fraternal, sisterly, romantic, or the love of friends—are explored in every episode.