Monday, July 16, 2012

Midwives bicycle across the pond in Downton's wake ADAM SHERWIN TUESDAY 17 JULY 2012 (THE INDEPENDENT)



American viewers couldn't get enough of the class snobbery and grandeur of Downton Abbey. But will the misery of the East End's post-war slums prove quite as appealing when Call The Midwife becomes the latest British drama to cross the Atlantic?

The series, about a group of midwives in 1950s London, became BBC1's most popular new drama for more than a decade. It has now been snapped up for a Sunday night prime-time slot by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which scored record ratings when it broadcast Downton Abbey.

American executives believe that the themes of nursing and childbirth, set against a gritty period backdrop, will translate to US viewers despite the lack of glamorous gowns and high-born scheming which has made Downton Abbey an international hit. Adapted by Heidi Thomas from Jennifer Worth's memoirs, the series stars Jessica Raine as Jenny Lee, a young midwife who is attached to an order of nursing nuns and must navigate the teeming East End streets and a culture very different from the English countryside where she was raised.

READ MORE: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/midwives-bicycle-across-the-pond-in-downtons-wake-7946860.html


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