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Midwives have this amazing ability to
have so much empathy and yet do the job

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that they are there to do These women,
the connection that they have with

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mothers

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00:00:24,869 --> 00:00:29,450
It's one of the most perfect expressions
of care we have in our society.

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00:00:29,670 --> 00:00:31,210
Yeah, I really admire them.

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Someone who can really help and guide
and make a big difference to where a

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child's born.

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And it should be a very celebrated job.

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And they just do it again and again and
again.

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00:00:44,930 --> 00:00:45,930
Respect.

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00:01:01,550 --> 00:01:05,870
Twelve years ago, maybe a little more, I
wrote an article for the Royal College

12
00:01:05,870 --> 00:01:10,670
of Midwives Journal that was looking at
aspects of the midwife in literature,

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which had been part of a master's degree
that I'd been doing. It got a lot of

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response. It was very gratifying that
I'd seemed to have struck a chord with

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midwives. Midwives seemed to appreciate
that somebody'd noticed that midwives

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weren't in books.

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lots of midwives wrote to me. Amongst
the people who wrote to me was a woman

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called Jennifer Worth who'd just taken
retirement.

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She'd been a music teacher before
retirement and before that she'd been a

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and a midwife and she said that I had
inspired her to write a memoir which was

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lovely and lots of the other letters
were lovely but I didn't expect anything

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come of it.

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About 18 months later Jennifer wrote to
me again and said that she'd written her

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memoirs and asked me if I'd like to read
them and of course I said yes.

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The next thing was really unexpected.

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I got a manuscript of handwritten notes,
a great wodge on odd sizes of paper all

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held together with treasury tags and the
whole thing was handwritten.

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It was just an absolute delight.

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I sat at the kitchen table when I should
have been marking student surveys.

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And I read through the manuscript and I
nearly forgot to pick my children up

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from school. The stories were just
wonderful. They just leapt off the page.

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But because she'd been practicing for a
maximum of seven years in the late 50s

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and early 60s, there were some parts of
it that she'd misremembered. There were

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some aspects of clinical practice that
were just wrong.

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So I telephoned her the next day and
asked if she would mind if I...

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corrected some of the clinical mistakes
for her. And that started a 12, 13 -year

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relationship. We were sent the first
book, called The Midwife, in manuscript

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Jennifer Worth's agent.

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And within, I think, six months of that
first reading, the book had gone to

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number one in the bestseller charts.

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00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,980
Simply, on word of mouth, you know, it
didn't have a big advertising campaign.

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It was one of those books that people...

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00:03:18,899 --> 00:03:23,060
and its popularity just mushroomed
almost overnight.

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00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:28,360
Pippa Harris, who is my fellow executive
producer, said to me, I've found these

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amazing books and I want you to read
them because I think they'll be right up

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your street.

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And when she told me that they were set
in the 1950s...

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and that the author was still alive.

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I said, nope, not my cup of tea, it's
the wrong century, and I don't adapt the

50
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work of living authors.

51
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And I've known Pippa for many years, and
she said to me, look, she said, I know

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00:03:46,860 --> 00:03:49,860
you, and I know you will not be able to
put these books down.

53
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So on her recommendation, I took
delivery of the books, and she was

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right. I started reading at 9, 10 o
'clock at night, thinking I'll give it

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an hour and then I'll go to bed.

56
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And at 3 o 'clock in the morning, I was
still there turning the pages.

57
00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:08,180
crying my eyes out. I just thought they
were brilliant, compelling, emotionally

58
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engaging, truthful, unique, funny books
and I was on board from there on in

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really. Jennifer was tall, elegant,
bespectacled,

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fiercely clever, very musical, rather
frightening and

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completely inspirational.

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Jennifer had a very fixed idea about
what she wanted and

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i was lucky enough to get on the right
side of her and be able to correct some

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of the things that she'd misremembered
so that her stories remained intact and

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the integrity of her practice remained
intact without ever ruffling any

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i hope jennifer worth herself was an
absolutely wonderful woman and i felt

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privileged because

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Early on, after we'd optioned the books,
I got in touch with her and we started

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00:05:02,030 --> 00:05:03,970
a working dialogue.

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So she was involved in the development
of the show right from the beginning.

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The great tragedy was that just before
we started production, she phoned up to

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00:05:13,330 --> 00:05:17,710
say she had backache. She was going to
come and show us around the East End,

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00:05:17,750 --> 00:05:19,270
actually, and show us the real
locations.

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00:05:20,629 --> 00:05:25,150
And within a week of that phone call,
she phoned again to say she'd been

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00:05:25,150 --> 00:05:30,310
diagnosed with throat cancer. And she
died very soon afterwards before we

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started filming.

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00:05:31,350 --> 00:05:37,090
And it was really shocking and very
upsetting for all of us because I

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00:05:37,530 --> 00:05:40,770
we'd all assumed she was with us for the
whole journey.

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00:05:41,090 --> 00:05:45,950
I did go to visit her about a month
before she died, and at that point I

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00:05:45,950 --> 00:05:49,490
we had just cast Jessica Raine, because
I can remember her looking at the

81
00:05:49,490 --> 00:05:54,710
photograph, stroking it in a rather
approving sort of way, because Jessica

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actually very pretty and doesn't look
dissimilar to Jennifer as a young woman.

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There's an elfin quality to their
features, and it was nice to let her

84
00:06:02,690 --> 00:06:03,990
that was in hand.

85
00:06:04,780 --> 00:06:07,560
And this was the young lady who was
going to carry the torch forward.

86
00:06:08,220 --> 00:06:12,820
I wanted to meet this incredible woman
that had documented the lives of

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00:06:12,820 --> 00:06:15,540
midwives, something that had never been
documented before.

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00:06:16,180 --> 00:06:19,300
I thought she was a really special
woman. I'd read the books before.

89
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I'd even gone in for the audition years
before. So it was just incredibly sad

90
00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:27,020
that I didn't get to meet her.

91
00:06:35,020 --> 00:06:39,380
We looked at a lot of directors' work
and the person who was top of the list

92
00:06:39,380 --> 00:06:44,420
Philippa Lothorp. When we met her, she
absolutely responded to Heidi's scripts

93
00:06:44,420 --> 00:06:51,080
and found all the humour and the human
gems, if you like, the little

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nuances of character that make the story
so very special.

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00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:03,580
It's a beautiful, beautiful image.

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00:07:04,020 --> 00:07:08,120
Philippa comes from a documentary
background, and so I think in terms of

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at the authenticity of that world, which
we were really concerned to do, to make

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that world real and get in there and
tell, because it's a story of real

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lives. So I think we wanted somebody who
had that approach to it, which Philippa

100
00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:25,240
definitely did. We wanted to be
absolutely authentic, so we did masses

101
00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:29,080
masses of research. When I'm directing,
I usually look for visual references,

102
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either... using film or photographs or
painting.

103
00:07:33,450 --> 00:07:38,650
I also used a lot of wonderful street
photographers like Roger Mayne and

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at their photographs of the time. Using
those reference photographs is very,

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very important to me.

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We got some slightly snide comments from
critics saying that it was all too

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clean and there was no litter.

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go and look at those images, you know,
there was no litter on the streets

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because although they were very poor
communities, they took immense pride,

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know, it was an era of polishing the
front step kind of thing, but also there

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was no rubbish, there weren't takeaways
and people lived quite frugal lives and

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there wasn't plastics everywhere.

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So, you know, we really tried to be as
authentic as we could and get a kind of

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very truthful portrayal of that world.

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The smoking, he called the midwife, as a
non -smoker, was one of my favourite

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00:08:17,890 --> 00:08:22,920
things. It was suggested by Philippa
Lothal, the director.

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And she asked me, she said, look,

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you know, do you mind smoking?

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I just think it would be right.

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And as I say, as a non -smoker, I leapt
on it. I smoked many, many years ago.

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It's a filthy habit.

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But at the time, everybody smoked.

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And there's something fantastic and real
about seeing a beautiful baby.

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About seeing a mother laid down in his
perfect seat, and then suddenly she

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sticks a fag in her mouth. And you are
transported back to a whole different

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mindset. It's one of the strongest
indicators of period that I can think

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00:09:03,290 --> 00:09:06,090
And it just feels so naughty as well.

128
00:09:06,390 --> 00:09:11,690
You know, you can't smoke anywhere in
Great Britain now, but here I am smoking

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00:09:11,690 --> 00:09:14,930
away on set. It's just the most
fantastically naughty thing to do.

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00:09:15,980 --> 00:09:18,760
Call the Midwife is so of its era.

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It's just simply the colours, the red of
our jerseys and our lovely maroon hats

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and things and the bicycles.

133
00:09:26,940 --> 00:09:32,920
When you get on set, because Steve
Stewart's done such a fantastic job with

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of the sets, the colours and the tones,
the muted tones that they had in the

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50s, it really sort of...

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pulls you back in there straight away.
You don't really have to act that much

137
00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:46,260
because, you know, you have old packets
of baked beans and hovis and, you know,

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all of those things that were 50s -led.

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00:09:48,540 --> 00:09:52,040
They're making my bedroom at the moment
and Bev just showed me the theatre

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programmes and we've had a chat about
what photographs I would have in there.

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And all those things make it really real
and you can really invest as an actor

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00:10:01,460 --> 00:10:03,740
in your character and in the
environment.

143
00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:07,640
It reminds me of when I was a kid as
well, you know, because you don't see

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00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:11,800
playing in the street anymore, but in
this, you know, there's just a tide of

145
00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:16,660
kids running everywhere with footballs
and hoops and, you know, prams and

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00:10:16,660 --> 00:10:18,700
dollies and there's just hundreds of
them.

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00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:22,100
You know, that's really nice to see
again.

148
00:10:22,620 --> 00:10:26,320
And it's a shame that we don't see that
anymore, you know, but there was less

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00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:29,720
traffic and less people around, I
suppose.

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00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:34,240
When we first started the project, we
found this building, which was a

151
00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:38,300
So we tried to make it work as an
artist's house where the nuns actually

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00:10:38,300 --> 00:10:42,340
in the East End and give them the brick
and its history and the lovely long

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00:10:42,340 --> 00:10:47,100
cloisters that represented, you know,
very good kind of religious motifs we

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00:10:47,100 --> 00:10:48,560
thought it was brilliant to work with.

155
00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:53,400
Having trained in theatre, I realised
that it's very...

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00:10:53,910 --> 00:10:59,170
helpful to an actor if they can
completely immerse themselves in that

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00:10:59,170 --> 00:11:05,810
so I think my job is to really surround
them in a bubble of belief so if they're

158
00:11:05,810 --> 00:11:09,970
in the 1950s like they are now then I
would make sure that they really felt

159
00:11:09,970 --> 00:11:16,090
were in the 1950s down to probably being
cold or Mrs Jenkins being in a stinky

160
00:11:16,090 --> 00:11:21,890
old little hovel and damp I think it's
really important that that existence

161
00:11:21,890 --> 00:11:24,700
a bit method probably but It does seem
to really help.

162
00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:32,000
Everything's kind of, I don't know, sort
of big and hefty and simple.

163
00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:34,620
I can't explain it. It's just sort of,
mm.

164
00:11:34,940 --> 00:11:36,600
Hello, I'm a fridge.

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00:11:36,980 --> 00:11:42,780
I haven't got little ice things in front
of me and, you know,

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00:11:42,820 --> 00:11:48,080
adjustments of temperatures. I'm just a,
look at that scent.

167
00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:49,400
Mm.

168
00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:56,820
Yeah, I love it when we get the detail
of a lunch or tea and there's doilies

169
00:11:56,820 --> 00:11:59,200
loads of cups and sauces and the china.

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00:11:59,560 --> 00:12:06,440
It really does suspend you into another
world, which is so useful. And all the

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00:12:06,440 --> 00:12:08,460
things like, look,

172
00:12:09,540 --> 00:12:12,160
Paddy's Soap Flakes.

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00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:18,480
Hi, I'm Chummy and this is Paddy's Soap
Flakes. They get out any stains in under

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00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:19,480
15 seconds.

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00:12:20,490 --> 00:12:21,510
Padded soap flakes.

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00:12:21,770 --> 00:12:23,010
The wonder washer.

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00:12:24,750 --> 00:12:27,370
The wonder washer. That's genius.

178
00:12:33,230 --> 00:12:35,350
It's so much cycling.

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00:12:35,690 --> 00:12:42,250
And often when we're in Chatham, we do
all those exterior scenes and the

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00:12:42,250 --> 00:12:48,710
cobbles, they're pretty deep cobbles
with very deep grooves in. So if

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00:12:49,260 --> 00:12:53,100
front wheel gets caught in one of them,
it is a nightmare and you've just got to

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00:12:53,100 --> 00:12:54,100
battle along.

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00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:59,920
And also, when I'm cycling on cobbles,
I'm, you know, going along and all I'm

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00:12:59,920 --> 00:13:04,140
thinking is like, you know when you see
people go at high speed, their skin goes

185
00:13:04,140 --> 00:13:05,140
all like weird.

186
00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:11,060
I'm going, am I just like... And
everyone is just like, no, no, it looks

187
00:13:11,340 --> 00:13:14,500
And I'm like, basically that's all I'm
thinking when I'm cycling my bike.

188
00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:17,700
I haven't toppled off yet.

189
00:13:18,830 --> 00:13:22,570
But every time I get on that bike, I
think it could be today.

190
00:13:23,970 --> 00:13:27,510
I was nervous going down that hill. My
bike was going to get icy.

191
00:13:28,050 --> 00:13:31,670
And then you get off again. But you know
it's because I'm staying a moment.

192
00:13:32,330 --> 00:13:37,090
So I have cycled from John O 'Groats,
the tippity -topity of Scotland, to land

193
00:13:37,090 --> 00:13:41,750
then in Cornwall, England, which is our
entire nation.

194
00:13:42,470 --> 00:13:45,630
So, yes, that's what I have achieved.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone.

195
00:13:45,910 --> 00:13:47,190
But chummy, of course.

196
00:13:47,710 --> 00:13:48,710
I couldn't ride a bicycle.

197
00:13:49,110 --> 00:13:50,850
So I was thinking, well, this is going
to be some acting.

198
00:13:51,090 --> 00:13:52,390
How on earth am I going to do this?

199
00:13:52,650 --> 00:13:57,450
But it turns out that you need to be
able to be very good at cycling to do

200
00:13:57,450 --> 00:13:59,290
the wobbling and falling.

201
00:13:59,570 --> 00:14:00,710
So it worked out well.

202
00:14:07,610 --> 00:14:11,670
Whereas some of the other girls, name me
no names, Helen George, who plays

203
00:14:11,670 --> 00:14:13,770
Trixie, are rubbish.

204
00:14:20,270 --> 00:14:26,430
In the late 50s, we're at a point where
women lot were to wash nappies and have

205
00:14:26,430 --> 00:14:30,590
children. It was, you know, a period
where women didn't work. They just went

206
00:14:30,590 --> 00:14:35,590
and got married. So the fact that they
chose this as a vocation and gave their

207
00:14:35,590 --> 00:14:39,970
life to these women to help them was
incredible.

208
00:14:41,450 --> 00:14:43,010
There's newspaper under here.

209
00:14:43,270 --> 00:14:44,650
Well, saved on laundry.

210
00:14:45,190 --> 00:14:46,870
Let the mattress live another day.

211
00:14:48,110 --> 00:14:51,430
You're not in hospital now with
cupboards full of spotless linen.

212
00:14:51,730 --> 00:14:56,190
The era that called midwife was
certainly in that part of London a much,

213
00:14:56,190 --> 00:14:58,150
tougher world. People lived in
incredible poverty.

214
00:14:58,430 --> 00:15:00,150
They didn't have good sanitation.

215
00:15:00,450 --> 00:15:06,370
They had huge families. They lived in
tiny families of 15 people in two rooms.

216
00:15:06,370 --> 00:15:11,030
look back and I think, God, this is more
like 500 years ago, not 50 years ago. I

217
00:15:11,030 --> 00:15:15,410
mean, you can't comprehend the way life
has advanced since then.

218
00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:20,440
Looking how far we've come and things
that we all take for granted in terms of

219
00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:24,780
our health care, which in the 50s were
just not possible.

220
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Simple things like the lack of pain
relief during birth, which is

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when you think my mother would have
given birth with no pain relief at all.

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I want gas.

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00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:38,200
Dr Turner's got some in his boot. He
said so when he was at the clinic.

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00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:44,900
One big change for Dr Turner, one he
absolutely adores, is gas in the air.

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00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,740
This had just started to come in in the
late 50s. It wasn't perfected at that

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00:15:49,740 --> 00:15:53,000
time, but he loves his new gas and air
machine.

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00:15:53,340 --> 00:15:59,060
And if you imagine, for the women who've
had to cope with appalling pain in

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childbirth, this stuff is a miracle.

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Suddenly the women can give birth and
feel hardly any pain.

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We know this is normal now, but back
then, when he brings this in in Series

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00:16:10,780 --> 00:16:15,840
the women see this and... catered it
like wildfire and it caused them a lot

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00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:22,540
trouble and it's quite funny i was
spreading the news about that gas how

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00:16:22,540 --> 00:16:28,480
write it they'll all be wanting it a lot
of my friends are having children at

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the moment and it's interesting watching
throughout their eyes how it works now

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00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:37,680
it's that's the choice that you have
this file that you can fill in your

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00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:42,400
birthing plan and you can say what sort
of cow shed candle you'd like and what

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00:16:42,400 --> 00:16:45,860
sort of drink you'd like to be served
whilst you're giving birth I mean that

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didn't happen you just had hot water and
towels and that was about it so then

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00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:56,820
quite a considerable change we're so
lucky now well I mean I think that then

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had much more one -to -one care personal
care and and and they would follow

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00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:06,099
through with the same midwife I think
now

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00:17:07,869 --> 00:17:13,750
Technically, there are strengths in
advance, but certainly you don't get the

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attention, I don't think.

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Also, because there are so many more
people now, they haven't got the time,

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unfortunately.

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00:17:21,609 --> 00:17:26,390
Particularly in the 50s, it was
important for nurses and midwives to

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00:17:26,390 --> 00:17:30,170
them, to have conversations, and having
a cup of tea with their patient rather

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00:17:30,170 --> 00:17:33,990
than just going in there and giving them
some medicine, you know. So it was

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00:17:33,990 --> 00:17:36,770
about strong care within the community.

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00:17:37,420 --> 00:17:42,940
The job of a midwife, I believe, is to
make people feel safe and secure as soon

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00:17:42,940 --> 00:17:46,640
as you meet them. Have them believing
that they can trust you to deliver their

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baby safely.

253
00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:53,980
I think the changes in midwifery have
been subtle and very

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00:17:53,980 --> 00:17:59,460
gentle over the years. This book is
Miles' Midwifery.

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00:17:59,780 --> 00:18:01,580
It's a textbook for midwives.

256
00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:05,400
I bring this because it just shows
that...

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00:18:05,630 --> 00:18:09,270
Most of the things that we do now are
not really an awful lot different.

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00:18:09,530 --> 00:18:14,790
The babies still come out exactly the
same way. And I think sometimes it's

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00:18:14,790 --> 00:18:21,510
helpful for the actresses to see a
textbook that would have been available

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00:18:21,510 --> 00:18:23,710
them to use as midwives.

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00:18:24,050 --> 00:18:28,870
Now I think women are much more
encouraged to do whatever's comfortable

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00:18:28,970 --> 00:18:33,690
And you've got all of the water birth,
you've got a hell of a lot more drugs.

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00:18:34,540 --> 00:18:37,000
they didn't have any drugs the

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00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:44,720
1950s

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00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:48,740
midwife would have to have carried
almost like her you know her house on

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00:18:48,740 --> 00:18:53,160
back this would have had to have
traveled with her everywhere and she

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00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:57,660
been away from her base most of the day
and this would have had to have sorted

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00:18:57,660 --> 00:19:04,100
everything out the midwife instruments
for delivery, kept in this cloth bag,

269
00:19:04,100 --> 00:19:06,920
she would have taken them out clean,
sterile, every day.

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00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:11,560
And they're almost identical to the
instruments that we carry now.

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00:19:12,780 --> 00:19:19,440
What she would have is two clamps for
the cord, a pair of cord scissors,

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00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:25,120
these are dressing forceps which we
wouldn't normally carry, and a pair of

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00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:26,120
episiotomy scissors.

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00:19:26,540 --> 00:19:27,540
Rectal tube.

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00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:29,840
Class.

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00:19:31,050 --> 00:19:36,550
and second rectal tube until the first
one breaks. A glass rectal examiner.

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00:19:39,350 --> 00:19:42,490
It's quite shocking, right?

278
00:19:42,770 --> 00:19:45,270
We think of the potential disasters
there.

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00:19:45,710 --> 00:19:52,070
Here's an exclusive for you. Pam Ferris
on our second day of filming did break

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00:19:52,070 --> 00:19:56,330
said rectal examiner.

281
00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:01,680
And there wasn't another one, and there
was all sorts of hilarious showbiz

282
00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:02,680
shenanigans.

283
00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:05,820
It's so much fun here.

284
00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:15,360
When it actually came to the playing
scene where I had to deal with

285
00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:18,840
I was thrown in the deep end. It was in
the beginning of the second series.

286
00:20:19,120 --> 00:20:21,940
We arrived with this woman giving birth
on a laboratory.

287
00:20:22,180 --> 00:20:26,500
She's been caught out, and so I get to
deliver this baby.

288
00:20:27,020 --> 00:20:29,700
And we spent the entire day, because the
birth scenes take quite a long time to

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00:20:29,700 --> 00:20:33,100
do, they're quite difficult to do,
because of working with a real child and

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00:20:33,100 --> 00:20:37,320
working with prosthetics and working,
you know, trying to get the shots and

291
00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:40,360
things that make something real. So we
spent this entire day crammed into a

292
00:20:40,360 --> 00:20:44,200
lavatory with a camera, with this poor
woman sitting on the edge of it, who is

293
00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:47,240
the young woman. And I just thought,
this is completely absurd.

294
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:50,800
You know, here I am, kneeling all day,
just grabbing onto this.

295
00:20:51,790 --> 00:20:56,350
child coming out. The scene itself is
really quite a moving scene with all the

296
00:20:56,350 --> 00:20:58,530
women outside the laboratory all kind of
cheering.

297
00:20:59,610 --> 00:21:06,490
I did rely a lot on our on -set midwife,
Terry, who

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00:21:06,490 --> 00:21:12,170
was just incredible and would just be
there right in the act and, you know,

299
00:21:12,190 --> 00:21:16,930
kneeling down with you and saying, you'd
have your hands here like this and she

300
00:21:16,930 --> 00:21:17,950
was invaluable.

301
00:21:18,570 --> 00:21:24,090
This doll is used to practice birth
simulation, and then we use the very

302
00:21:24,090 --> 00:21:29,070
expensive prosthetic doll, which costs
about £5 ,000 a time, so we don't pull

303
00:21:29,070 --> 00:21:30,490
that through practice deliveries.

304
00:21:30,890 --> 00:21:35,330
We've used a couple of prosthetic
babies. One is a very newborn one, which

305
00:21:35,330 --> 00:21:36,330
really scary.

306
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,720
It's really tiny. It's got a little tube
in it and you can blow in it out of

307
00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:42,620
shot and it breathes and it's really
spooky.

308
00:21:43,100 --> 00:21:47,800
And then we've got another one that's
been made, but they're weighted and

309
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:52,360
they're made so realistically that even
if you're the most hardened prop man

310
00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:57,400
bringing it to set, you can't just carry
it like a prop. They all created it

311
00:21:57,400 --> 00:21:58,400
like a little baby.

312
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:01,800
He's Nick if he's a boy and Nicola if
he's a girl.

313
00:22:02,590 --> 00:22:07,490
That bit is detachable, so our babies
can be girls or boys, depending on the

314
00:22:07,490 --> 00:22:13,530
story. Suppose we use the prosthetics
quite a lot for the tricky manoeuvres.

315
00:22:13,530 --> 00:22:18,170
When the babies are actually being born,
it's much easier and kinder to do that

316
00:22:18,170 --> 00:22:20,610
with a prosthetic. We wouldn't use a
real baby for that.

317
00:22:20,950 --> 00:22:25,900
And then because we've got a midwife on
set... she makes the decisions about

318
00:22:25,900 --> 00:22:30,540
things like that. So we use them as much
as we can, probably more for the

319
00:22:30,540 --> 00:22:31,620
birthing scenes.

320
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:36,120
If we can have the real baby, that's
normally what the director would prefer,

321
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:38,640
because then you can do a tight close
-up on the baby's face.

322
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:43,540
But they can also be used if they've got
little hats and they're wrapped in

323
00:22:43,540 --> 00:22:46,140
blankets. You can use them quite close
up.

324
00:22:46,540 --> 00:22:50,500
But I suppose they're used mainly for
the birthing scenes, the actual delivery

325
00:22:50,500 --> 00:22:52,300
bit. They're a silicon base.

326
00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:58,300
and they're hand -coloured and then all
of the hair is put in individually, each

327
00:22:58,300 --> 00:23:01,240
strand, so it makes them look much more
realistic.

328
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:06,180
The babies are quite good because
they're actually quite heavy and their

329
00:23:06,180 --> 00:23:10,120
flop and their legs move and their
little heads wobble and that's why

330
00:23:10,120 --> 00:23:13,320
quite useful for the actresses as well
because we have to hold them like a

331
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:14,320
proper baby.

332
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:17,040
There he is.

333
00:23:18,830 --> 00:23:23,170
tend not to be there for the birth
scenes because we like to keep as few

334
00:23:23,170 --> 00:23:27,050
on set as possible just to help the
actors really and to keep it quiet for

335
00:23:27,050 --> 00:23:29,450
babies. But Terry is always, always
there.

336
00:23:29,750 --> 00:23:35,270
And normally we know exactly before we
start filming what the ramifications of

337
00:23:35,270 --> 00:23:37,550
that scene are, but she would call me if
there was a problem.

338
00:23:37,790 --> 00:23:42,350
So I'm always very confident that we are
spot on with our deliveries.

339
00:23:42,730 --> 00:23:47,730
In fact, I could probably, probably
deliver a baby now in the 1950s manner.

340
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:50,740
At work, I wear scrubs.

341
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:56,640
Here, I wear anything that's not going
to show the muck. This is not a

342
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:57,640
job.

343
00:23:58,060 --> 00:24:04,320
And for delivery, I get wet here because
the props

344
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:06,380
provide me with lots of water.

345
00:24:07,140 --> 00:24:09,900
Makeup provides me with lots of fake
blood and oil.

346
00:24:10,590 --> 00:24:14,150
And I oil up the babies, and if I don't
wear this, I'm wet down to my underwear

347
00:24:14,150 --> 00:24:16,250
within half an hour of practicing a
delivery.

348
00:24:16,570 --> 00:24:18,350
So, yeah, this has been wonderful.

349
00:24:19,110 --> 00:24:26,090
In the birthing scene, there's different
stages of how we achieve the realistic

350
00:24:26,090 --> 00:24:27,250
effects of birth.

351
00:24:28,010 --> 00:24:32,690
There's a time in certain shots when
you're able to do it essentially with a

352
00:24:32,690 --> 00:24:36,270
doll. When you get closer, then they
have a prosthetic baby.

353
00:24:36,970 --> 00:24:40,510
And they look incredibly realistic, but
of course it's still a doll, it's still

354
00:24:40,510 --> 00:24:41,129
a model.

355
00:24:41,130 --> 00:24:45,270
And so you're able to draw in and at a
certain distance, it still looks

356
00:24:45,270 --> 00:24:46,530
amazingly lifelike.

357
00:24:46,790 --> 00:24:51,510
But then this wonderful moment happens
where eventually it just won't do.

358
00:24:52,050 --> 00:24:54,550
And then everybody has to go really
quiet.

359
00:24:55,630 --> 00:25:00,630
And they have a beautiful baby there,
which usually, because Terry's a genius,

360
00:25:01,370 --> 00:25:06,970
is usually sleeping soundly. And then
they bring this newborn, this child,

361
00:25:06,970 --> 00:25:07,909
the room.

362
00:25:07,910 --> 00:25:11,770
Everyone goes very, very quiet, like a
library, and it's very sepulchral.

363
00:25:12,230 --> 00:25:16,850
And this little baby usually does the
best acting in the whole scene because

364
00:25:16,850 --> 00:25:18,990
it's just wonderful. One take,
fantastic.

365
00:25:19,510 --> 00:25:24,370
The other day we had a five -day -old
baby filming the birth scene, and you

366
00:25:24,370 --> 00:25:27,270
think, what if this little tiny person
is there?

367
00:25:27,870 --> 00:25:30,310
And it's very, very special, actually.

368
00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:35,320
Although that little baby did a wee all
over the actress who's pretending to

369
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:36,099
give birth.

370
00:25:36,100 --> 00:25:38,500
But no matter, we carried on.

371
00:25:39,180 --> 00:25:40,960
I see a camera, I'm off.

372
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:46,140
I'm so camera shy.

373
00:25:46,420 --> 00:25:52,920
A lot of dramatists argue out a problem
and they'll create characters.

374
00:25:53,340 --> 00:25:56,980
But they're often not completely or
fully fleshed because they're aspects of

375
00:25:56,980 --> 00:26:00,140
person. When you sort of read the
script, sometimes you can't quite

376
00:26:00,140 --> 00:26:03,500
that... you know, these stories actually
happened. And I think that gives an

377
00:26:03,500 --> 00:26:05,000
added element of kind of authenticity.

378
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,080
And I think that's, in a way, what
works.

379
00:26:08,380 --> 00:26:13,100
It's not just an observation of what it
was like in the 50s, but it does come

380
00:26:13,100 --> 00:26:14,820
from these wonderful memoirs of Jennifer
Worth.

381
00:26:15,100 --> 00:26:19,880
I think I feel a sense of loyalty
knowing that there was a sister of

382
00:26:20,300 --> 00:26:24,180
And I want to do her justice because I
know she's real.

383
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:27,620
So it's an extra sense of
responsibility, probably.

384
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,760
The thing that struck me about playing a
real person was I was just getting on

385
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:38,460
with the job and it wasn't until the day
that Philip, Jennifer's husband, came

386
00:26:38,460 --> 00:26:45,180
in to watch and Jennifer's grandchildren
and daughter. Seeing Philip be really

387
00:26:45,180 --> 00:26:52,180
moved by what he was seeing and
specifically being moved by seeing me on

388
00:26:52,180 --> 00:26:55,400
evoked such memories for him.

389
00:26:56,780 --> 00:27:02,740
that I was really humbled and it didn't
make me feel any pressure. I didn't ever

390
00:27:02,740 --> 00:27:07,720
feel that because I just thought I can
only do what I do and trust the director

391
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:08,720
and the writing.

392
00:27:09,220 --> 00:27:15,880
But I certainly felt a certain
responsibility to do a good job on this.

393
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,560
Call the Midwife is a reminder.

394
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:26,360
of why we care about each other.

395
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:32,540
One of the most fantastic things about
this drama is it makes us feel better to

396
00:27:32,540 --> 00:27:33,540
all be together.

397
00:27:33,700 --> 00:27:37,820
There is a common theme. The more I read
the books and the more we worked on

398
00:27:37,820 --> 00:27:41,760
developing the other stories, I realised
that what Jennifer was writing about

399
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:43,480
was the triumph of love.

400
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:49,060
I'm just delighted that people are
seeing what midwives do. People are

401
00:27:49,060 --> 00:27:51,700
midwives supporting women.

402
00:27:52,380 --> 00:27:55,960
and seeing them all the way through to a
nice, normal, healthy delivery.

403
00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:00,320
And they're seeing strong women coping
at home with no pain relief.

404
00:28:00,700 --> 00:28:06,780
They're not seeing midwifery idealized
and in a sanitized unit. They're seeing

405
00:28:06,780 --> 00:28:11,220
people give birth, which is a really
natural process, and they're seeing

406
00:28:11,220 --> 00:28:14,640
at home. They're seeing birth in a
really natural surrounding.

407
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:19,620
They're seeing midwives cope with very
little, and they're seeing mothers cope

408
00:28:19,620 --> 00:28:25,580
with very little, but they're seeing the
power of community, they're seeing the

409
00:28:25,580 --> 00:28:30,540
power of support and they're seeing what
women can truly achieve.

410
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:35,180
I think they're life -enhancing stories
and I think that's why the public have

411
00:28:35,180 --> 00:28:39,480
responded to it in a way. One of the
things that attracts me to Call the

412
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:43,920
is its incredible number of
contradictions.

413
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:51,100
The struggle and dirt and grime of daily
life with the fantastic pop music of

414
00:28:51,100 --> 00:28:51,839
the time.

415
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:58,280
The love and excitement of the new baby
with the pain and

416
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:03,200
sometimes loss of bereavement or
violence at home.

417
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:08,660
The extraordinary worldliness of sharing
in people's lives when you're a nun and

418
00:29:08,660 --> 00:29:12,080
then coming back to Nanata's house and
singing playing songs.

419
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:14,100
The blood and guts.

420
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:16,060
and the spirituality.

421
00:29:16,500 --> 00:29:21,740
It's the most extraordinary conjunction
of opposites and that I love.