BBC's Call the Midwife TV Show, complete seasons 1 and 2 DVD boxed set – follows a group of midwives based in East London in the 1950s.

Based on the bestselling memoirs by Jennifer Worth, this series continues to follow Jenny and the other midwives as they deal with the all the problems Poplar has to throw at them. A very old and dirty woman dressed in rags is fascinated by the newborns, much to the disgust and fear of the mothers. But is there more to this woman that anyone realises?

When a baby is abandoned at Nonnatus House at Christmas, the nuns wonder who would be desperate enough to do such a thing. And word soon spreads that Dr Turner is trialling the latest pain killer – gas and air. It's not long before all the women want a taste of it. A fascinating portrayal of birth, life, death and a community on the brink of huge social change, Call the Midwife offers a gripping insight into a world that is so drastically different from how we live now.

• Won TV Quick Awards for: Best New Drama, Best Actress Miranda Hart 2012
• Won TRIC Award, TV Drama Programme of the Year 2013
• 5 other award wins & 9 nominations

Special Features

• Behind the scenes with cast interviews

Call the Midwife Reviews

“Based on the same-named (and partly fictionalized) memoirs of Jennifer Worth (nee Lee), Call the Midwife (2012) is a new BBC series garnering very high ratings and excellent reviews comparable to that other recent transatlantic hit, ITV's Downton Abbey. I was attracted to it because series creator Heidi Thomas was also responsible for the short-lived revival of Upstairs, Downstairs, which in its first of two, too short seasons especially, this reviewer thought was just marvelous. Call the Midwife has many of the same charms, with rich characterizations and intriguing, historically interesting stories and situations…As in the book, Call the Midwife is set in Poplar, a particularly poor section of London's East End, where in the late 1950s newly graduated midwife nurse Jenny Lee (Jessica Raine) goes to work at Nonnatus House, an Anglican nunnery based on Worth's real place of employment, Whitechapel's Sis­ters of St. John the Divine. Episodes trace Jenny's steady adjustment to life among the poor, usually following her adventures in an "A” story while a secondary “B” subplot follows one of the other nurses or one of the nuns, and sometimes either or both stories parallel their situations with various expectant mothers and their husbands (or their lack thereof). The show is extremely well acted by its mix of young and veteran talent. In addition to Raine's sensitive portrait of Jenny, making the strongest impressions are comedienne Miranda Hart as Nurse “Chummy” Browne (Camilla Fortescue-Cholmondeley Browne), a comically towering, shy and awkward young nurse with an upper class background; Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris, Rosemary & Thyme), a short-tempered, no-nonsense nun and midwife particularly annoyed by the eccentric, possibly senile behavior of elderly Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt, ER); and Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter, The Railway Children, Walkabout, Logan's Run), the diplomatic, sensitive but rock-solid mother superior. An unseen Vanessa Redgrave as the older Jenny provides the lovely opening and closing narration. It's taken directly from the book and, reportedly, shortly before the real Jenny's death in 2011 Heidi Thomas promised that only Worth's words would be used in future episodes…Miranda Hart's Chummy especially stands out. The character is one of the most endearingly and authentically awkward women I've seen in years and, as the cliché goes, an instant classic. Expect to see Hart win a lot of awards for this. The stories are in some ways predictable. Jenny befriends an aged, infirm tenement dweller named Joe (Roy Hudd), but is repulsed by his cockroach-infested flat. In that same episode, a pregnant woman is mysteriously disturbed by her pregnancy and her doting older husband's exci­tement. The reason for her behavior is predictable, but like the rest of the show's writing and production, so exquisitely played that one easily forgives its obviousness. I'm certainly looking forward to season two." DVD Talk (season 1)

“Partly, Call the Midwife's appeal is lost on many American viewers, unaware just how accurately it captures London's East End transitioning from an almost dark, Dickensian life for its poor and toward a much better existence thanks in no small way to socialized medicine and Britain's National Health Service. In the Christmas Special episode, Jenny cares for a destitute old lady, Mrs. Jenkins (Shelia Reid), and as the story unfolded I was shocked to learn that workhouses of the type Ebenezer Scrooge famously said the poor must go or die "and decrease the surplus population” were still operating in Britain as late as 1930, and continued in a half-dismantled form as late as 1948. Miranda Hart's Chummy, absent from some of the middle shows here, stands out particularly and was deservedly nominated for a BAFTA TV award…If you liked Call the Midwife before, chances are you'll embrace this fine continuation. Highly Recommended." DVD Talk (season 2)