Call The Midwife film: What year is it set and what could it be about?

What a week for Call The Midwife fans, with not one, but two hugely exciting announcements made about the show. That's right, after a few months of speculation, the BBC have announced that both a Call The Midwife prequel and a film have been given the green light.

In the midst of sadness that Megan Cusack has left the show as Nancy, and concern that Zephryn Taitte's Cyril could be following, this is the excellent pick-me-up we needed.

While we take a moment to recover from this exciting news, we take a look at what year the film is expected to be set in, and what it could be about.

When is the Call The Midwife film set?

The film will be set in 1972, and is set to feature characters viewers already know from the TV show.

Dame Pippa Harris DBE, who acts as executive producer on the show, says, "In an increasingly competitive viewing environment not only have our loyal fans stayed with us for 14 years, but they’ve been joined by a new, younger generation who have also fallen in love with our characters and the challenges they face."

She adds, "Emboldened by this warmth and enthusiasm, now feels like the right time to expand our world and take our nuns and midwives onto the big screen with our movie."

Lindsay Salt is the Director of BBC Drama. She says, "Call the Midwife has been a jewel in the BBC’s crown for well over a decade, and this feels like the perfect time to further expand on the glorious, perfectly realised world that Heidi, Pippa, Annie and the team have created for the show’s millions of passionate and dedicated viewers.

Whether you’ve been watching from the very start or joined us for one of the more recent series, this is an incredibly exciting time to be a Call the Midwife fan."

What could the film be about?

The crew are currently being quite tight-lipped about what the film will be about, other than revealing it will be set overseas.

Heidi Thomas OBE, creator and writer of Call The Midwife, says, "As the classic Call the Midwife series moves further into the 1970s, it also seems the perfect time for our much-loved regulars to take a short break from Poplar and test themselves in an unfamiliar landscape."

She adds, "The rise in hospital births, and changes in the NHS, have clipped their wings, and this is their chance to take flight and work out what really matters. Whilst the location of the film remains top-secret, I can say it is going to look absolutely fantastic on the big screen!"

From this, it appears that the Poplar midwives aren't needed quite so much in the East End, as contraception becomes widely available and birth rates fall. With births becoming increasingly medicalised, home birth rates also fell significantly during the early 70s - and never recovered.

As trained professionals, it's likely the midwives will want to take their skills to less developed areas of the world that still need them. Spurred on by their religious beliefs and the need to help others, this appears a likely premise for the film.

Like the prequel series, no release date information has been given yet for the film. However, we'll be here to update you as soon as we know when you can watch your East End favourites on the big screen.