By Lacy Baugher for Drama on March 9th, 2016

‘Call the Midwife’ Season 5 Comes to PBS Stations This Spring

The ladies of "Call the Midwife" Season 5. (Photo: Courtesy of Red Productions Ltd 2015)

Patsy (Emerald Fennell), Trixie (Helen George) & Barbara (Charlotte Ritchie)

Copyright Red Productions Ltd 2015

The ladies of "Call the Midwife" Season 5. (Photo: Courtesy of Red Productions Ltd 2015)
The ladies of "Call the Midwife" Season 5. (Photo: Courtesy of Red Productions Ltd 2015)

Mark your calendars: Popular period drama Call the Midwife is set to return to PBS stations this Spring! 

The highly anticipated fifth season will premiere on PBS stations nationwide beginning April 3. Call the Midwife will join a formidable block of British programming on Sunday nights that includes the second season of mystery series Grantchester and the fourth and final run of period drama Mr. Selfridge.

When Season 5 opens, it’s 1961 and Poplar is beginning to feel the winds of social change, along with improvements in housing, sanitation and healthcare. Among the complex and challenging cases the nurses and midwives will face is the heart-rending story of thalidomide, the drug that Dr. Turner was seen prescribing at the end of Season 4.  Predominantly prescribed for morning sickness, it was later discovered to harm the development of unborn babies and cause serious birth defects, especially if taken early in a pregnancy.  The drug was eventually withdrawn from the market in 1961, before the UK government issued a warning in May, 1962.

Watch the BBC trailer for Season 5 below: 

Gut response: Get the Kleenex ready.

The drama has already been renewed for a sixth season – was actually renewed before a single episode of Season 5 aired in the UK – so there are plenty of adventures still in store for fans of the ladies of Nonnatus House. 

In case you need a refresher on everything that’s happened on Call the Midwife, we’ve got a recap of the 2015 holiday installment, as well as individual recaps for every episode of Season 4.

Are you looking forward to the return of Call the Midwife? 

By Lacy Baugher for Drama on March 9th, 2016
Lacy Baugher

Lacy's love of British TV is embarrassingly extensive, but primarily centers around evangelizing all things Doctor Who, and watching as many period dramas as possible.

Digital media type by day, she also has a fairly useless degree in British medieval literature, and dearly loves to talk about dream poetry, liminality, and the medieval religious vision. (Sadly, that opportunity presents itself very infrequently.) York apologist, Ninth Doctor enthusiast, and unabashed Ravenclaw. Say hi on Threads or Blue Sky at @LacyMB. 

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