Bosses at the BBC have opened up about the future of beloved drama Call the Midwife following concerns about filming space. Following reports that Neal Street Productions, the company behind the midwifery programme, were asked to leave their usual filming studio to make way for a Netflix production, the team revealed that, luckily, this will not affect the show's future.
MORE: Call the Midwife director announces new show - and it sounds amazing
Chief of Drama at the BBC, Piers Wenger, explained to press at a recent Q&A: "[Call the Midwife] will be made - we're not going to stop making it just because we don't have access to studio space."
WATCH: Call the Midwife is filming the 2021 Christmas special!
He continued: "More generally, of course, it's such a huge problem and lack of availability drives up costs and that is something that we are really feeling the impact of. Dramas are costing so much more than they were costing five years ago."
The show, which has been running since 2012, had been recently filming for the upcoming 11th series at Longcross Studios, Surrey, when the production crew were asked to vacate the premises.
A spokesperson for the company told the Times last month: "Call the Midwife series 11 is currently filming at Longcross Studios and the adjacent Barrowhills complex. There are ongoing conversations between Neal Street Productions and Netflix about how to continue filming future series at the studio complex."
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Are you looking forward to the new series?
Meanwhile, director of Call the Midwife, Noreen Kershaw, recently announced another major project – and it just sounds as good! Noreen is working on four-part Channel 5 series, Compulsion, which is due out in 2022.
Starring Cold Feet actress Leanne Best and The Watch star Anna Chancellor, the story follows paramedic Jenny, who after a fatal train crash develops a gambling addition to try to cope with her PTSD.
The synopsis reads: "Heavily in debt to some dangerous people, help arrives in the form of a good Samaritan Sasha, who offers Jenny a way out. However, Sasha has her own agenda, one which will ultimately force Jenny to take the biggest gamble of her life. For her life."
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