Call the Midwife S10 returns to PBS on Sunday, October 3. Photo: BBC

Regular viewers of Drama Sundays on PBS have seen first hand just how much COVID has created havoc this year on a number of major UK productions around the world. Fortunately, things returned to something resembling normalcy earlier this year, for a while anyway, allowing many of our collective favorites such as Call the Midwife, Grantchester, Endeavour, Death in Paradise and All Creatures Great and Small to resume production in 2021.

While several series such as Father Brown and Shakespeare & Hathaway ultimately delayed production for a full year, two perennial Sunday night favorites are set to return to the PBS schedule beginning Sunday, October 3 after a only a several month delay from their original release schedule.

Call the Midwife S10 — premieres Sunday, October 3 at 8pET/7pCT

Nurse Phyllis Crane (Linda Bassett), Nurse Trixie Franklin (Helen George), Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) – (C) Nealstreet Productions – Photographer: Laura Radford

Back for series 10, the Heidi Thomas created series will return on Sunday, October 3 at 8p ET/7p CT. The bike-riding midwives of Poplar find themselves in the year 1966 as the practice at Nonnatus House is compared with the private Lady Emily Clinic in Mayfair. Helen George’s Trixie is seconded to the private Mayfair clinic as part of a new partnership with Nonnatus House, something which Dr. Turner, a strong advocate of the free NHS, is firmly opposed to.

Never a series to shy away from a difficult topic that requires at least a box of tissues per episode (think cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis, thalidomide, diptheria, sickle cell disease, leprosy, meningitis and polio to just scratch the surface), series 10 will tackle diabetes and the controversy of abortion on the eve of legalization in 1967.

Grantchester S6 — returns Sunday, October 3 at 9pCT/8pCT

Grantchester returns to PBS on Sunday, October 3. Photo: Kudos/ITV/Masterpiece

When the series returns for it’s 6th season on October 3, we find ourselves in 1958 with a bit of trouble brewing in the Cambridgeshire village of Grantchester. While Reverend Will Davenport (Tom Brittney, Greyhound) seems to relish his role as a firebrand vicar, it begins to put him at odds with his own ideals when Leonard (Al Weaver) is caught up in a scandal.

Meanwhile, Geordie (Robson Green) finds his principles shaken, Mrs. Chapman (Tessa Peake-Jones) is distraught, and Geordie’s wife Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth) is defiant. With new crimes around every corner, and morality and legality at odds, it’s going to take all of Will’s skill and empathy to navigate these choppy waters and help the ones he loves.

A little added bit of bonus information to keep in the back of your mind as you set the DVR for October 3, Call the Midwife has been already been commissioned for two additional series (series 11 and 12) and Grantchester has begun filming on series 7 with Tom Brittney making his Grantchester directorial debut, stepping behind the camera to direct episode three of the show.

Call the Midwife and Grantchester return to PBS as part of Drama Sundays beginning October 3! 

In: Drama