PBS is transporting viewers back to East London with a seventh season of the critically acclaimed British drama CALL THE MIDWIFE. The series returns on March 25, 2018, with back-to-back episodes from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET on PBS. The Sunday night lineup also features two new MASTERPIECE programs, including “The Child in Time,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kelly Macdonald, April 1, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET, and “Unforgotten” April 8-May 13, 2018, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET.
Nonnatus House welcomes a new midwife, Lucille Anderson played by Leonie Elliott (Wondrous Oblivion, Danny and the Human Zoo, “Black Mirror”), the first West Indian midwife to be featured as a series regular. Elegant, compassionate and clever, Nurse Lucille is swift to settle in and brings a fresh new energy to life at Nonnatus House. Her story reflects the experiences of Caribbean nurses who traveled to the U.K. in the 1960s to support the expanding National Health Service.
Season 7 of CALL THE MIDWIFE opens as the “Big Freeze” of 1963 continues and the midwives persevere through the intense winter. The nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House are being tested as they have never been before, both personally and professionally. All around them they see the old East End vanishing, as slum clearances make way for bold new tower blocks to accommodate expanding communities. They find themselves facing a wide range of medical challenges, from breech birth to cancer, Huntington’s chorea and cataracts. Trixie and Christopher continue to develop their romance, while Tom and Barbara enjoy life as a married couple. Nurse Crane’s authority is questioned from an unexpected source, and Sister Monica Joan is forced to accept her failing faculties. Additionally, life for the Turners is turned upside down when Shelagh decides to employ an au pair.
Made by Neal Street Productions for BBC One and PBS, CALL THE MIDWIFE has been one of Britain’s most popular drama series since it launched in 2012, and it continues to be one of the most-watched dramas in the U.K. CALL THE MIDWIFE? has earned more than 20 TV awards and nominations, including several from BAFTA, the Royal Television Society and the National TV awards. The series won a Gracie Award for Ensemble Cast in 2017 and has recently been voted the Best Drama of the 21st Century in the BFI & Radio Times Festival Audience Poll. CALL THE MIDWIFE was recommissioned by the BBC for a further three series and three holiday specials, taking the nuns and midwives right into the mid 1960s and CALL THE MIDWIFE to 9 series.