If you’ve been watching BBC One, you may have seen Call the Midwife, but did you know it was originally a book?
Read on for the top 30 interesting facts about Call The Midwife.
Call the Midwife is an original memoir by Jennifer Worth.
It is the first in a trilogy.
The complete trilogy is: Call the Midwife (2002), Shadows of the Workhouse (2005), and Farewell to the East End (2009).
The books were about Worth’s experiences as a district nurse and midwife.
The books chronicle life in the 1950s.
At the time of Worth’s death, the books sold over one million copies.
Worth wrote a separate book, In The Midst of Life in 2010, about her time working with mental health patients.
Call the Midwife became a television adaptation.
Worth was born on September 25, 1935.
She died on May 31, 2011.
She suffered from oesophageal cancer, which was the cause of her death.
Worth was born in Essex and grew up in Buckinghamshire.
She trained at the London Hospital in Whitechapel.
She assisted the poor at the Sisters of St John the Divine.
Worth became a ward sister at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital.
She later worked at the Marie Curie Hospital.
She retired from nursing to pursue a musical career.
She criticized the portrayal of abortions in the 2004 film, Vera Drake.
Call the Midwife was written in response to an article about under-represented midwives in literature.
She hand-wrote Call the Midwife.
The narrative is split between the midwifery and their stories, and incidents at the nunnery.
Many of the characters are pseudonymous.
The general characters are Jenny herself, Camilla ‘Chummy’ Browne, Cynthia Miller, Trixie Franklin, Sister Julienne, Sister Evangelina, Sister Monica Joan, and Constable David Thompson.
After the success of the book, the publishers released other books with similar themes such as The Sugar Girls by Nuala Calvi.
The BBC commissioned the books for a UK Drama series.
There have been two seasons (on-going) and a Christmas special.
Actresses such as Pam Ferris, Miranda Hart, and Vanessa Redgrave have starred in the show.
Season two was commissioned after the pilot episode attracted over ten million viewers.
It won TV Quick’s Best New Drama award.
Miranda Hart won the National Television Award for Best Drama Performance: Female.
