There are times you definitely don’t want to know how the sausage is made. Going behind-the-scenes with the BBC’s most popular drama series, Call the Midwife, starring Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart, Cliff Parisi, Jenny Agutter, Pam Ferris and Judy Parfitt, however, is definitely not one of those times. While hitting on all the right cylinders for series one, which premiered on the BBC and PBS in 2011, series 2 really found its stride with the perfect blend of period drama charm and hard-hitting social commentary. Here’s a great behind-the-scenes clip from series 2, episode 2 that will give you a sense as to how the Call the Midwife ‘sausage’ is made.
 

Nonnatus House sold

St. Joseph’s, the former missionary college used as the primary set for Call the Midwife has been sold and is being redeveloped as a luxury housing estate. On the surface, it doesn’t sound like a life-changing event for the series, but it will force a dramatic plot shift in the show’s 2013 Christmas special.

The sale has led the series creator and writer, Heidi Thomas, to base the program’s Christmas special on the sudden need to rehouse the midwives in more modern surroundings, as the show moves from the grim insanitary slums of the 1950s towards the start of the swinging 60s. Rest assured, most of the series’ street scenes will continue to be filmed at the historic Chatham dockyard with the trademark exterior shots of grimy terrace homes, opening directly on to the street, the team use a small area around Theed Street in Waterloo.

Series 3 of Call the Midwife is currently filming now through November with 2014 targeted for transmission on both BBC One and PBS.