Rebecca Gethings and Renee Bailey, stars of BBC's Call the Midwife, have shared an update on the show's future, revealing that the cast remains uncertain about a potential season 16. Gethings, who has played Sister Veronica since 2023, told the Daily Express: "We don't know! I hope at some point but they're busy doing the prequel right now."
Prequel Production Underway
The prequel, titled Call the Midwife: Sisters in Arms, began production in June 2026. Showrunner Heidi Thomas is at the helm alongside executive producers Pippa Harris and Ann Tricklebank. Gethings expressed excitement about the prequel: "As a viewer I will be tuning in. I'm really excited. We've seen the casting, I thoroughly approve. Everyone looks brilliant."
Renee Bailey, who first appeared as midwife Joyce Highland in the 2023 Christmas special, added: "It's exciting to see a whole new generation of midwife world. The world is expanding and it's very cool."
Same Heart, New Era
Gethings reassured fans that the prequel will retain the spirit of the original series. "I think it will have the same heart that the show has. It will have historic accuracy. Call the Midwife is a social historical document as well as a drama so it will be very well researched," she said. "We'll be seeing a different era where the nurses and midwives are in the front and centre of the community because we're phasing that out as it's becoming more medicalised in the 70s."
Bailey echoed this sentiment: "I imagine it's going to be really in the spirit of Call the Midwife, everyone getting stuck in. I think it's going to be exciting, especially with the backdrop of the war."
High Stakes in Wartime Setting
Gethings promised high drama: "The stakes will be very high." The BBC's official synopsis for the prequel reads: "In September 1939, Sister Monica Joan is in her prime, Sister Julienne and Sister Evangelina are young and zealous, and Nonnatus House is the beating heart of Poplar. Together with Sister Alice, and local GP Dr Kit, the nuns dedicate their lives to mothers, babies and the poor. But there is no gas and air, no penicillin, no cure for TB, and no welfare state. Then war is declared - and life gets even harder."
The story follows three young secular midwives—Sybil, Olive and Marianne—who receive a baptism of fire as the blackout and the Blitz take hold. "While bombs rain from the sky, women give birth underground, families are shattered, children run wild, and whole streets are reduced to rubble. But courage, compassion and resilience triumph as the community unites in its efforts to survive," the synopsis adds.
Call the Midwife season 15 aired in early 2026, but season 16 has yet to receive official confirmation. The series is available on BBC iPlayer.
