A young woman becomes pregnant. The details of the baby’s conception are local gossip. She goes into labour when she is far from home and her baby boy is born surrounded by poverty and filth. At first, it seems that his life could be under threat. But the simple joy of childbirth means that all of this darkness melts away. Just a glance at the newborn stirs such hope that, for a moment, the true glory of humanity is visible. This is how the Gospels describe the birth of Jesus, but it could equally well be a plot summary for many of the episodes of Call the Midwife.
The very stuff of life
One Born Every Minute meets Eastenders in Call the Midwife, which had been hailed as the most popular BBC drama in ten years. The show is based on a best-selling trilogy of memoirs by Jennifer Worth describing the experience of delivering babies in the 1950s, before readily-available pain-relief or the pill.
The series follows young nurse Jenny Lee (Jessica Raine) as she moves to East London to begin work as a midwife. She is exposed to the hardships of life in Poplar as it recovers from the war, living and working at Nonnatus House alongside an order of nuns who provide a good deal of comedy. Jenny also meets another group of feisty women — the pregnant ‘heroines’ of the community — who impress her with their unconquerable spirit, determination and sense of humour.