‘Call the Midwife’ getting in the holiday spirit beginning this week!

On: May 1, 2023,  By: Bill Young

Photo courtesy: BBC / Neal Street Productions

With filming set to begin this week on this years Call the Midwife Christmas special, Stephen McGann (Dr. Patrick Turner) joked recently with the press that he was certain the sun would come out to mark the occasion. “We literally start next week with Christmas again,” he said. “And I guarantee you, the sun will come out and we will bake while we’ve got five layers on!”

Calling it an ‘incredible priviledge’ to occupy such a prominent primetime slot on such an important day of telly in the UK, McGann explained how the annual Christmas Day CTM special had made the holiday feel very different for him every year.

“It’s the weirdest feeling in the world to do all the things that everybody else does on Christmas Day, particularly Christmas dinner,” he explained. “Of course, I’m married to Heidi [Thomas], so Heidi writes the series and she does everything every mum does on Christmas Day.”

“And when everybody settles down to watch Call the Midwife, we sort of look at each other in the house and go, ‘Here we go again, we’ve got to go to work!’

Matthew and Trixie in Call the Midwife. Photo courtesy: BBC / Neal Street Productions

McGann went on to explain how the Christmas episode is usually very different from other episodes in the series – and how that makes the filming process a little different too.

“It has a different feel; it’s a different audience, people are staying home with their families and so it’s a different vibe. It’s also the thing that brings us into a new season. It has all those elements and over the years, we’ve all gotten used to that rhythm.”

The Turners talk Christmas 2022…

Call the Midwife Christmas Special will air 25 December on BBC 1 and PBS.

In: Drama