You know it’s time to start picking out a tree when the first pictures of the TV Christmas specials start arriving.
Well, they’re here, for ‘Call the Midwife’ at least, capturing our favourite nurses in action in South Africa.
For the festive season, the midwives and nuns will be heading abroad, and the cast have been filming in the country, where the Yuletide special will be set in a village in 1962.
It was a time when apartheid was still being enforced by the government, when there was no support for mission hospitals, so new mothers were dependend on local donations as much as overseas help. The show’s casting director Christa Schamberger recently told the Mirror, the midwives will “see the drastic effects of apartheid – with absolutely no facilities for black people”.
The episode will be lacking one familiar face. Despite earlier reports that Miranda Hart would be returning to her role of Chummy, the comedienne has shared on social media that this will no longer be happening, due to her heavy workload in the next few months.
She wrote: “It’s with a heavy heart that having shared Chummy’s return to CTM, I’ve not been able to birth (pun) the schedule to make it work. xx”
Miranda also bigged up the return of the series, telling viewers they were in for a treat with “Dame Harriet Walter as a new cast member and more besides”.
The most recent episodes were a huge hit with fans, who were left reaching for the tissues following the shock death of one of a much-loved Nonnatus House resident.
‘Call the Midwife’ Christmas Special will air on Christmas Eve on BBC One.
