Original subtitles

It's universal.

It's birth, life and death.

And everybody understands that.

She's a bit of all right.

To be there at the beginning, and what a wonderful job.

Call a midwife is about the most important thing in life, is the birth of

soul. Everybody has affiliation with birth.

A midwife?

Then, in the 1950s, there were no doctors there. She was entirely

for the health of the mother and the child in delivering that baby.

about having a group of nuns living in the same house

young nurses who are notoriously lively shall we say and it's very interesting

to see the dynamic between the two of them that the nurses are exploring the

world and going out with boys and dances and the pictures and they they bring

back all that information whereas here our imagined life is very very

that we pray and sing in the morning in the evening and it's a very quiet life

but i secretly think the nuns enjoy it the nurse is bringing back a taste of

outside these generally middle -class midwives going out into the community

dealing with very awful situations that they've never been exposed to but at

that time it was about getting on and doing it and there was such a wonderful

spirit even though so much harm had come to the country so it's really about

those stories through the eyes of the midwives and their experiences This is

the invention of the pill.

When the birth rate was very high in this poor area, there was no national

health covering birth, and these charitable nuns were the only people

could turn to.

Right! Which one of you ladies is my patient?

Really, poverty -stricken eastern London. I mean, yeah, there was probably

sewage running out.

the back of their gardens. I mean, all the toilets in the back, or if not at

all. I mean, that's an amazing thing, six years ago.

And there were still bomb sites everywhere, and there was still

poverty, and people were still living in slums, and there was a shortage of

housing.

I think... When it came to casting Jenny herself, and when we met Jessica Raine,

I think we all just fell in love with her. I think she has an incredible

combination of beauty and vulnerability, but also a sort of almost a steeliness

to her, which was the same with the real Jennifer, that she was a very focused

and quite an ambitious woman, an extremely successful woman throughout

And I think Jessica combines all those qualities really beautifully.

She's got a very strong voice, and it's important to carry that dramatically.

Put on two ounces, Mr and Mrs Warren. We're on our way.

And it's very humbling when Jennifer Worth's family come on set.

It brings it all home that this is a real -life story that you're bringing to

the screen.

It makes you want to do it right, really.

Hello, I'm Jennifer Lee.

I was told to report to the matron in charge.

Venus and Saturn are now in alignment.

What's interesting is that Jenny comes in as a completely blank slate.

So all of the relationships that she's forming, the audience are watching her

form for the first time as well. She comes in with her own past, which has

a very well -to -do, very middle -class background, and is sort of thrust into

the East End way of life.

And it's quite, you know, quite shocking.

And, yeah, it's through her eyes that we see this story unfold of Jennifer

Worth's books.

And there's a nice relationship between Jenny and Sister Julianne, someone who

understands where she comes from. There's obviously something of that

background, but has taken a different course, but can see what she's capable

Jenny, although...

doesn't discover religion, she discovers a kind of faith in humanity throughout

the series.

It's heavenly playing a nun because I get to have a comfortable costume,

comfortable shoes, no faffing about with makeup or hair in the mornings. The

only drawback is the wimple, which is a bit like a harness.

You're all right.

Evangelina is courageous, utterly ruthless, and 100 % committed to her

Sister Monica Joan is quixotic.

I have the insect in high esteem.

I've often wished I had a thorax. I love the fact that she is different from one

second to the next.

I love Sister Monica Joan. She's so much fun.

We have these wonderful scenes where we're all sat around the dinner table

we eat so much on this show because the midwives have to refuel at any moment.

So you can't be on a no -carb diet. I mean, you have to eat white bread and

sausage rolls and scones. And there's Sister Monica Joan at the head of the

table just having a tiny bit of cake with a bit of cream just pushing it

her plate whilst we're all having roast dinners and, you know, big old food and

all she'll eat is cake.

The late 1950s were a fascinating time of change, and that is essential to the

story of the midwives. People also forget, you know, the 50s were a time

you know, all the way through, in fact, before the war and through the war,

things stopped being developed because the whole effort went into the fight and

trying to keep things together. But, you know, the National Health started

during the war.

And then they were able to pick up. And in fact, all the things that we started

to see in the 60s, like extraordinary explosion.

I mean, obviously things happen scientifically.

There's the pill, there's going to the moon, all the extraordinary developments

in art and science and theatre and everything.

We always put into being the creation of the 60s, but it was born in the 50s,

out of the 50s and post -war.

So it's an extraordinarily vital period of time. It's such a romantic era.

And it's come out of the war and everyone's pulled together and is

They just felt like they were alive.

You know, the war was over and things were changing and the NHS was starting.

It's that sense of optimism, the post -war period where people had come

a terrible experience and were rebuilding their lives.

There was a real community spirit.

And I suppose people also had a need to create lots of life.

There were no painkillers for certainly the poorest women of the borough.

of Poplar at that time.

It was grin and bear it. The most interesting thing for me was the breech

To remove my hand from the baby and let it hang from its head. To think they did

that. So risky.

I'm going to loosen my hand on baby and let her body hang.

What is shocking to me, and I think to most people who watch this, is that this

is in living memory.

I think all of these young women have chosen to do a profession that really

make a difference and in an area of London that seriously needs help.

Cynthia and Trixie and Jenny are a real unit and they really get it. They get

how life is in that place.

I don't care if it's green, red or orange.

Your child's heart rate is dropping and I need you to start pushing.

Now. It's very joyous and celebratory and there's lots of great food, but it's

also really tough and takes its emotional toll too.

Me and the girls just got on brilliantly as ourselves and so that was really

easy to translate on screen. We always wanted girly scenes, always thinking we

should be more girly together on screen.

I really remember the scene here actually when Helen was singing in the

spoon too.

And that was lovely. That was one of my first scenes that I filmed.

There's a wonderful soul about Call the Midwife, which I think is quite rare,

because it is based on memoirs, and unfortunately Jennifer Worth passed away

just two weeks before we started filming, so it became her legacy.

So we all care so passionately about the project, and I really think that comes

across on the screen.

Call the Midwife is...

a heartfelt program.

It's beautifully acted, beautifully created, and everyone cares about it so

much. Women now, you wouldn't get them bicycling eight miles a day around smog

and poverty and, you know, to deliver a baby. It's so removed from where we are.

And it's funny, and it's moving, and it's enlightening.

I don't think you can get more than that, can you?