It seems nuns working as midwives in the East End of London have captured the hearts of TV viewers like no other characters, as ‘Call the Midwife’ was named Best Drama of the 21st century.
The BBC One drama grabbed the most votes in a poll carried out by thousands of readers for the Radio Times. The result was announced last night, on the final evening of this year’s BFI & Radio Times Television Festival on London’s Southbank.
The period drama, which has just finished its sixth series, came top of a shortlist of six, each of which had already won in their category of Best Crime Drama, Best US Drama, Best Foreign Language Drama, Best Sci-fi Drama and Best Contemporary Drama.
The final round received over 23,000 votes, with ‘Call The Midwife’ beating sci-fi winner, ‘Merlin’, in second place, and ‘The Bridge’, winner of the Best Foreign Language Drama, into third.
The show’s executive producer, Dame Pippa Harris, said of the result:
“It’s an extraordinary honour to have topped this poll, and the whole ‘Call the Midwife’ team are delighted. It’s a tribute not only to the brilliance of our ensemble cast but to the skill and passion of Heidi Thomas’ writing and to the range and diversity of stories the series has covered.
“I’m personally thrilled that a show which takes an unflinching look at the lives of women and is created by and stars so many talented women, should have struck a chord with such a large audience.”
Best Drama of the 21st Century results:
- Call the Midwife
- Merlin
- The Bridge
- The Night Manager
- The West Wing
- Happy Valley
The show was first broadcast in 2012, since when it has followed the lives of a group of midwives working in the poverty-stricken East End of London during the 1950s and 60s. The drama was originally based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth, and has become an immediate critical and popular success, exploring hard-hitting themes of abortion, prostitution, incest, religion and the Thalidomide drug scandal of the 1960s.