Smallscreen News

Call The Midwife Live Chat today, with Jessica Raine and Heidi Thomas

By April MacIntyre Oct 22, 2012, 14:45 GMT

After last night’s Call the Midwife, PBS has set up a one-hour chat with Jessica Raine, who plays Jenny Lee, and writer/executive producer Heidi Thomas.

After last night’s Call the Midwife, PBS has set up a one-hour chat with Jessica Raine, who plays Jenny Lee, and writer/executive producer Heidi Thomas.

The chat will begin here at NOON ET, TODAY, MONDAY OCTOBER 22

In addition, please find a brief description below of next week’s episode (episode 5) after last night's heartwrenching moments.

‘Call the Midwife” is a six-part UK drama, which like monster hits “Downton Abbey” and “Sherlock,” has helped skyrocket PBS’s ratings with American audiences.

The story is set in East End London, circa 1957 where post war-England is in flux, and a group of young women deal with difficult pregnancies and births in a tough neighborhood filled with ignorance and dire poverty.  This was also the heyday of the infamous Kray twin brothers, gangsters of the East End who were notorious.

The story is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, and is written and produced by Heidi Thomas of “Cranford” and the new “Upstairs Downstairs.”

Thomas writes the story around the historical facts of England’s National Health Service, then in its infancy, and weaves the story of a young nurse — Jenny Lee (Jessica Raine) — who works with a feisty group of nurses and nuns.

The midwives, some of them are nuns, all live together in Nonnatus House, a convent.

Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) is a poet, while Chummy (Miranda Hart) is a Julia Childs' bonhomie aristocrat. Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris) is a delight too.

Next week, Jenny finds herself for once not involved in the beginning of life, but at its end. When Nonnatus House cleaner Peggy’s brother Frank is diagnosed with cancer, Jenny and the nuns are called upon to care for him. In doing so, Jenny comes to know the siblings better, learning of their upbringing in a workhouse and the profound effect it had on their relationship.

Tune in to Episode 5 (Sun, Oct. 28, 2012, 8/7c):