Call the Midwife star says it's 'vile' nurses are still fighting for fair pay

02 January 2024 , 19:00

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Stars of Call the Midwife are furious that nurses are still fighting for fair pay. (Image: BBC/Neal Street productions)

Stars of Call the Midwife are furious that nurses are still fighting for fair pay.

The new series of the beloved BBC drama, set in London’s East End, has nurses’ poor wages as a central theme. The opening episode has moved forward to 1969 shortly before nurses’ real-life pay battles of the 1970s. Megan Cusack, who plays nurse Nancy Corrigan, said: “It’s pretty vile. Revolting really, that it’s been ongoing for so long. Nurses need to be paid better. It would be lovely if something like this gets people talking about it.” Linda Bassett, much-loved senior nurse Phyllis Crane, is at odds with her character’s stance, which is that nurses do not do it for the money.

Call the Midwife continues on BBC1 at 8pm on Sunday (BBC / Neail Street Productions / Ray Burmiston)

Asked how she feels about the plot being reflected in the present day, Linda said: “It’s shocking. Appalling. “We don’t have the right values do we? I think that’s why people like Call the Midwife because people matter, people take care of each other. I don’t want them to go with Nurse Crane!”

Showrunner Heidi Thomas said pay and conditions could not be ignored and said of the trainees at Nonnatus House: “In conjunction with Nancy they put their shoulders behind an extraordinary campaign, which I discovered in my research. “These nurses took to the streets, protested and carried placards. One said: ‘We help sick people. This sick government will not help us.’ How could I not put that in?”

She added: “Nurses did not get what they were fighting for until 1970, which is the next series... now we’re in 1969 and it’s about women who want more choice, more freedom, more money, more power, more happiness.” Also in the series Trixie and Matthew (Helen George and Olly Rix) embark on married life – but struggle with money worries which puts their relationship under strain. And comedian Rosie Jones guest stars as a pregnant woman with cerebral palsy.

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• Call the Midwife, BBC1, Sunday, 8pm

Nicola Methven