New student midwives will join Nonnatus House as production on the 13th series of Call The Midwife begins, including a 90-minute Christmas special for 2023. The new series, which will be set in 1969, will consist of eight hour-long episodes to air in 2024.
The 13th series of the period drama about midwives in east London will see the return of the main cast, including Jenny Agutter, Stephen McGann and Helen George, while two new pupil midwives will join Nonnatus House, played by Renee Bailey and Natalie Quarry. Bailey will play Joyce Highland, from Trinidad, who aims to become matron of a British hospital. She is hardworking, bright and kind, with a traumatic past that she cannot conceal forever.
Quarry will play Rosalind Clifford, who is young, warm, passionate and funny. While she may seem naïve at times, she has an inner steeliness that will lead her to make some life-changing decisions.
The series will continue to explore complex medical and personal situations on the midwifery and district nursing rounds and will see stories from within the Sylheti and Nigerian communities and from around the docks. It will also explore issues surrounding cerebral palsy, congenital hip dysplasia, tetanus, porphyria and TB.
Creator and writer Heidi Thomas said: “After so many years, our much-loved regular characters are like family to me – and our wonderful fans so often tell me that they feel the same. I know they will be as thrilled as I am that series 13 of Call the Midwife is full of beautiful moments that celebrate the young, the old, and the precious ties that bind them.
“After Trixie’s spectacular wedding, the Nonnatus House community feels more tightly-knit than ever, but life in Poplar has never been a fairy tale. As 1969 unfolds we will see change and challenge rock the world of our beloved nuns, nurses, medics, and midwives. Newcomers Joyce and Rosalind arrive with much to learn, and much to give.
“And yet even as man prepares to walk on the moon, we see them grappling with life’s eternal questions. Who are we? What is love? And where do we belong?”
Executive producer Dame Pippa Harris added: “We’re so excited to be back for our 13th series, with all the treasured Nonnatus team returning – and also to welcome Renee and Natalie to the cast. They’re a wonderful addition to the show and I can’t wait for the audience to meet Joyce and Rosalind and to follow their journeys, by bicycle, through the streets and lives of Poplar’s residents.
“There’s so much in store for our audience this series, thanks to the perennial brilliance of Heidi Thomas, whose stories interweave joy, despair, love, history and medicine with a gorgeously diverse array of newborn babies.”
