Call the Midwife creator Heidi Thomas hints at break for long-running BBC drama
After 15 years on screen, Call the Midwife creator Heidi Thomas has hinted the long-running BBC drama may need to pause.
Heidi Thomas has hinted the long-running BBC drama Call the Midwife may need to pause after 15 years on screen.
Saying the demands of producing the series are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain, its creator Heidi, 63, who is also lead writer and executive producer of the BBC One drama, said the scale of the work involved in producing the programme – now approaching its 139th episode – means the current pace cannot continue indefinitely.
She told the Radio Times: “We have made 15 series in 15 years – I’ve known for a couple of years that that situation won’t go on for ever. The sets need repair. The nuns’ habits are worn out.”
Heidi added: “It takes 14 months to make every series. For two months of every year, the producer Annie Tricklebank and I work on two series simultaneously and the workload is immense.
“We call ourselves the Windmill Girls because for a couple of months, usually around September and October, we never close.
“I work until five in the morning and she gets up at five in the morning, we have an email handover, then I go to bed for a bit and she goes to the set. You can only sustain that for so long.”
The series, based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth and centred on nurses and nuns in Poplar, has been a staple of Sunday night television since its launch on BBC One in 2012.
Heidi indicated while the programme remains hugely popular, the intensity of production alongside ageing sets and costumes means the show may need to step back before continuing in a different form.
She had previously suggested the possibility of a break in an interview with Radio Times last year, when she spoke about the potential for “opportunities to expand our storytelling world”.
In that interview she said: “If we do take a break, it will be with a view to looking at other aspects of Call the Midwife.”
The current run of the drama, set in 1971, continues storylines involving characters including Sister Julienne, played by Jenny Agutter, Dr Turner, played by Stephen McGann and Sister Monica Joan, played by Judy Parfitt.
Heidi said the emotional impact of filming recent scenes reflected uncertainty about the programme’s immediate future.
She added: “I shed more tears during the making of that episode than any other.
“I thought, ‘Am I crying because of the story or am I crying because it’s our last episode for a while?’ In the end, I think it’s a mixture of everything.”
