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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Josh Luckhurst

Call The Midwife 'forced to halt filming' after real-life medical incident

Hit BBC show Call The Midwife was reportedly forced to stop filming after a baby fell seriously ill while on set.

Filming of the medical period drama from 1950s and 1960s Britain was halted at Longcross Film Studios in Surrey after three ambulances were seen on site following a "medical incident". The toddler was taken to hospital but has reportedly been discharged and is recovering at home.

A resident who lives close to the filming location told The Sun : "I saw three ambulances whizz past. I was shocked. It looked like something you’d see on a TV show but it was obviously a real incident being taken incredibly seriously."

A young baby was reportedly taken ill while filming and was taken to hospital (BBC)

"We never see anything like this happening in this part of the world. Everyone was talking about it."

The Mirror has contacted BBC representatives for comment.

The hugely-popular BBC programme is filming the 12th series which will feature the show’s first health visitor and first use of a ventouse during a birth. Set in 1968, it will also be heavily influenced by Enoch Powell’s divisive anti-immigration speech - which saw him ejected from the shadow cabinet.

Call The Midwife is into its 12th series (BBC / Nealstreat Productions / Ray Burmiston)

Show boss Heidi Thomas explained: "The first episode of the new series coincides with Enoch Powell’s famous speech about rivers of blood, which did change the way people of different cultures and ethnicities act with one another, and we felt we couldn’t ignore that."

Thomas said that "vacuum extraction" will be demonstrated for the first time - with an episode in which the team are sent on a training course. She added: "Whether Doctor Turner can afford to buy a ventouse machine is another matter. It might be like the incubator and need fund-raising."

The news series will be set in 1968 and will feature the show’s first health visitor (BBC / Nealstreet Productions / Sophie Mutevelian)

Earlier this month, Call The Midwife was voted as the best show of the past 25 years in a Radio Times poll. In a poll to mark the 25th anniversary of RadioTimes.com, readers were asked to vote for their favourite from a list complied by TV experts. Call the Midwife claimed 25% of the vote.

Another BBC series secured the second place spot, with sci-fi series Doctor Who receiving 13%. In joint third place were Line of Duty and Sherlock with seven per cent of the vote, while Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones took five and four per cent respectively.

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