Labour of love

Call The Midwife stars on future plans for a prequel and a movie

- NICOLA METHVEN

THE prequel of BBC1's Call the Midwife, set at the start of the Second World War and featuring younger versions of three of the show's best known characters, will launch on Christmas Day 2026.

Despite the audience not yet knowing the actors playing the younger versions of Jenny Agutter's Sister Julienne, Pam Ferris' Sister Evangelina or Judy Parfitt's Sister Monica Joan, bosses have such confidence in fans tuning in that the drama is expected to keep its prime festive slot.

Introducing the upcoming 15th series, producer Pippa Harris was asked if the Beeb was concerned about being left with "a blank space" for 2026.

She replied: "No, it will be on at Christmas..." That festive outing will be the first glimpse viewers have of the wartime spin-off, the work of writer Heidi Thomas, who wanted to take the story further back.

She explained: "Having wept, laughed, and raged my way from 1957 to 1971, I found myself yearning to delve into deeper past." the The brand new series, which does not yet have a title and will film next year, is set in 1939, nearly two decades before Jennifer Worth's original memoirs began.