A new co-produced video series from the BBC and Dr Alice Watson, from the School of Geography and the Environment, explores how the acclaimed television drama Call the Midwife inspires audiences to engage, create, and connect — offering fresh insights into the power and resonance of popular culture, and the wider impact of public service broadcasting.

Launched on 14 May 2025, Call the Midwife: The Fans’ Stories features six individual interviews with fans from across the UK who have taken their love for the programme beyond the screen — crafting, collecting, storytelling, and forming communities. It is part of Dr Watson’s ongoing collaborative research with the BBC into the influence of public service broadcasting on audiences' everyday lives.

Filmed during a dedicated workshop at Broadcasting House in late 2024, the series captures both the emotional significance of the show to its viewers and the diverse creative practices it has inspired - from cross-stitching iconic moments and knitting characters to podcasting and archiving memorabilia. This demonstrates how engagement with media does not begin and end with the singular act of viewership but can blossom into a whole range of creative activities that are meaningfully entangled with audiences' health and social identities. 

Dr Watson, Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer in Human Geography, said:

“It was a pleasure to collaborate again with the BBC on this new project. These stories illustrate how fans engage with Call the Midwife in interesting, innovative, and obsessive ways and through their own original activities, become creators, artists, and storytellers. The videos therefore underline how the drama has touched people’s lives in profound and lasting ways, not just as entertainment, but as a source of empowerment, reflection, and creative inspiration. ”

The series follows on from Dr Watson's AHRC-funded Tales from Call the Midwife — a 28-part podcast released in 2022 for the BBC’s centenary, which explored audiences' personal connections to the show’s storylines, including those addressing Down’s syndrome, adoption, miscarriage, and alcoholism.

Together, these two public engagement projects highlight the potential for meaningful research partnerships between academia and cultural institutions that generate co-produced media outputs with significant reach. They also illustrate how popular culture can spark personal and collective storytelling, offering an innovative model for impact in cultural geography and the geohumanities.

The video series is available via BBC Rewind: Call the Midwife: The Fans’ Stories – Canvas