First Look: New Midwives, New Drama in Season 13

(bright music) (phone ringing) - One of the things that is new in series 13 is that we introduce the pupil midwives who have come to complete their training at the Nonnatus House.

And they are a delightful group of young women.

- So Renee and Natalie, who play our new midwives, Joyce and Rosalind, a fantastic great addition, young and spirited and capable.

- So I am Renee Bailey, and I play Joyce Highland from Trinidad.

She is a new pupil midwife that has joined Nonnatus House and the rest of the gang.

Hello, Reggie.

- Are you new?

- Brand new.

We've got a lot to learn.

There's been quite a few influences for Joyce.

I think just older Caribbean women generally as well, has been, like, a source for me, just like some of their physicality and characteristics in the way they might speak or the rhythm of speech as well, specifically, for people from Trinidad.

She resembles a lot of people that I recognize or I've met or that, you know, I admire, so that's really cool.

And being able to use them as sources, it's been really fun.

This is the Sister Dorothea Headley Medal for Student Nurse Excellence awarded by Birmingham Teaching Hospital in 1968.

- She's one of the most gifted academically that we've ever had in the show.

- And the Astonbury Cup for an essay I wrote about the history of antiseptic.

- Your family must be very proud.

- My grandma in Trinidad would be if she was still alive.

- You see her come to Nonnatus really with a quite an academic and hospital-based knowledge.

And over the course of the series, she learns the benefits of home birth.

She learns the benefits of the way the nuns work, which is not quite the regimented way of the hospitals.

(playful music) - I am Natalie Quarry and I'll be playing Rosalind Clifford, who is one of the new pupil midwives at an Nonnatus House.

Sometimes I think it's a miracle any babies are born when you consider everything that could go wrong.

- Forewarned is forearmed.

Think of it like packing an umbrella.

If you've got one, you won't need it.

- I shall remember that.

It's such a cliche thing to say.

Massive dream come true.

I've been watching the show since I was little, so you know, I couldn't be happier with this being my first big job.

It's such a dream.

Very exciting to have the uniform that's part iconic and exciting to possibly be working towards another uniform, but I won't say too much.

- She arrives at Nonnatus House, a little bit nervous, a little bit shy.

She's initially a bit thrown by some of the conditions that she encounters.

Although she appears to be a very quiet and gentle person, when she finds situations that are not to her liking, or she thinks people are being mistreated in any way, shape or form, she can really roar.

- If you put the gun away, I will let you in, but you are to sit by the telephone and do not move.

- Starting with Natalie has been, ah, a dream.

It can be so scary coming into a space that's so well established.

Even though it's like a family here, and everyone's been so lovely, but coming into that space can feel really nerve wracking.

So having someone that's in that same position as you has been like, a godsend.

- One of the lovely things is, is they've got an intelligent approach.

They seem to instinctively understand what was needed.

They've brought so much new to it.

And witheringly, for a man who's now 60 years old, I said to Natalie, I said, "Did you always watch the program?"

She said, "Oh yes, I watched it when I was a child with my mom."

(laughs) And she was like, 12 or 13.

And of course, it's been on so long that children have now grown up and they can be in the series.

- They're fantastic additions to the cast as actors and as characters, I think.

- Oh, is that tea?

- Tea with a drop of rum in it.

(Nancy laughs) - I've never actually had rum except in cakes.

Oh, (giggles) that's marvelous.

(Nancy laughs) (playful music) - [Kids] Five, four, three, two, one, blast off.

(kids cheer) - It's 1969, I was a boy of six years old.

It's Apollo, they're putting men on the moon.

We're getting to the end of the '60s now.

I remember when we were starting the '60s.

(crowd cheering) - What do you reckon to that then, sister?

- I am not displeased to have witnessed it.

- So there's a world full of change and there's even a sense of that great era itself is coming to an end and something else is coming in its place.

- In episode one of series 13, we have a character played by Rosie Jones who has cerebral palsy.

- You know Mr. Turner shouldn't have booked you in for a surgery appointment.

Doctor always comes to see you at home because of our staircase.

- I need to see him in private.

- One of the things we prided ourselves on over the years is that we depict all sorts of disability with actors who have those disabilities, which seems self-evident.

Why would you do anything else?

But it hasn't always been the case.

She gives the most extraordinary performance and not only that, but her story touches one of our central characters, Sister Julienne, in a very personal way, - I get to work with the wonderful Rosie Jones.

She's having a child in it and I get involved with that, but I also have to deal with a huge amount of my own guilt and circumstances that have happened in the past.

(cheerful music) The other really exciting thing for Sister Julienne is something that she's sort of instigated, which is the bringing in of the new midwives for training.

And that brings with it a huge new energy because we've got all this youthful energy around us and people who are developing and training and giving them the sorts of problems and experiences to be able to go on in that field.

- Nurse Aylward, the cord is really, really short.

- Rub her, we need to get her breathing.

- It's been really interesting having the new midwives and it's also coincided with Trixie leaving Nonnatus House and going to her marital home with Matthew.

So there's an interesting chemistry, I suppose, as she's just leaving to move in with Matthew and yet she sees these young midwives as she once was, moving into Nonnatus and seeing how she feels about that and seeing them move into her bedroom when she's just left.

- I think my mummy's gone into the students' bedroom.

- I think she has.

Go back to bed, sweetie.

Let her have some fun.

So it's a really formative series for her in that way.

(phone rings) - Nonnatus House, health visitor speaking.

- All things considered, sister, this mother is not coping well.

Pain relief would really help keep her on an even keel.

- So Sister Veronica, as a health visitor, is out in the community, and so she's not just dealing with babies, she's dealing with people with a raft of social housing issues, health issues.

There are a couple of instances in this next season where potentially dangerous situations where Sister Veronica inserts herself sometimes 'cause she feels she knows better than other authorities, like the police.

And in some cases she does.

I'll take that, thank you.

What you do today can be a new beginning.

Your wife is about to bring your child into the world, Mr. Melia.

And she's learning to tread a bit, a little bit less heavy-footed and rub people up the wrong way a little bit less, I think.

(cheerful music) - We find things in "Call the Midwife" back then that things which are still a challenge, which are not a closed book.

- One of the fantastic things about series 13 is that we delve into problems with the new housing that was being built at the time in the East End of London, which of course, initially, people thought was gonna be a panacea, got rid of the slums, but actually came with its own problems.

Some of the flats were filled with mold and damp.

- For Cyril, it's about the social housing issue, and that really kind of is a rude awakening for him.

He sees how people are living poorly, the conditions of the house, the mold.

- Look, I told you last time, pastor, I don't give the Holy Spirit house room.

- And I'm not calling in that capacity.

I've been sent by the housing officer to assess your flat.

Which echoes to today, doesn't it?

And "Call the Midwife" is really clever and reminding us of these historical things that ring true even to today.

(bright music) - What's interesting about the late '60s, so much was happening that has made our world today.

- In this series, we see the campaign by nurses at the time to improve their paying conditions.

It was called the Raise the Roof Campaign.

- I think the National Health need to pay us danger money sometimes.

Or they could just pay us better, full stop.

- I hope you're not referring to this new wage campaign.

- I am, as a matter of fact.

- You could immediately say, "Oh no, hang on, this is all a bit 2023, all this nurses pay.

What "Call the Midwife" trying to say?"

It was a huge deal back in '69.

- And it was something, which obviously, was a big, big part of their lives at that time.

Clearly nurses and people in the healthcare professions are still struggling to get the pay they deserve.

So it feels very appropriate that we're covering this and reminding people that this isn't a recent phenomena.

- We enjoy the interplay of a history drama that's not that far ago.

We're not in the '20s, we're not in Victorian times.

We're in many people's, including muggins here, many people's living memories.

And that matters.

(gentle music)