Why isn't Call the Midwife on tonight and when is episode 7?

Call the Midwife season 14 is in full swing, but fans will have to be patient for episode 7 as it’s not on tonight for a very good reason.

Watching Call the Midwife season 14 has become a much looked forward to part of our Sunday night ritual since the long-running BBC drama returned in January. The show has amassed fans across the world over the past 13 years and its balance of heart-warming moments and thought-provoking real-life issues is what makes it so special. It’s also given us some tear-jerking moments over the years as we said goodbye to some beloved characters.

Season 14 has already had us wondering if Cyril will leave Call the Midwife for good and worrying about the future of Nonnatus House. With only two episodes left before Call the Midwife season 14 ends many fans will have been surprised and a little sad to discover that episode 7 isn’t airing in the usual timeslot this week - and here’s why.

Why isn’t Call the Midwife on tonight?

Call the Midwife isn’t on tonight because the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards are airing during the drama’s usual scheduling slot. Each new episode of Call the Midwife season 14 is broadcast at 8pm on BBC One on Sundays and the BAFTAs is being shown from 7pm-9pm when the next episode of period drama, Miss Austen, will start. Last year the Call the Midwife season 13 finale was also pushed back because of the awards and so this does seem to be a tradition now when it comes to the scheduling of the two programmes.

When is the next episode of Call the Midwife?

Thankfully we don’t have to wait long for the next episode of Call the Midwife season 14 to air as it’s only been pushed back by a week. Call the Midwife will return with episode 7 at 8pm on Sunday 23rd February and anyone who’s been eagerly re-watching or catching up on the episodes so far on BBC iPlayer might have noticed an orange message informing fans about this.

From then on, the show will resume its usual schedule and the finale will air the following Sunday, 2nd March. After this we’ll have to wait until the 2025 Call the Midwife Christmas special to return to Poplar, but at least we know well ahead of the finale that this is coming - and that Call the Midwife season 25 will be following in its wake too.

What can we expect from Call the Midwife episode 7?

*Warning: Spoilers for episode 6 ahead*

We might not get to watch Call the Midwife season 7 until 23rd February, but there was a preview of it at the end of episode 6 that gives us an idea of what's to come. The main thing we can expect to see in the upcoming penultimate episode is Nurse Joyce Highland receiving a letter confirming the date of her disciplinary hearing following the complaint made against her by a patient in episode 6.

From the glimpse we saw of Joyce and Sister Julienne sitting down in front of a panel of people at the very end of the preview, it actually seems as though we’ll also see the disciplinary hearing itself take place. It’s a horrific ordeal for Joyce to go through and she voices her scepticism and anxiety about how things will go for her.

"How can I trust in a process that might be as prejudiced as the person who made the complaint?" Joyce says.

She had done everything she could to help Bernie Midgely, the woman who made the complaint, but had faced awful racist abuse from her. Bernie had told Joyce to leave her house without being examined and the midwife had called Miss Higgins and asked for Dr Turner to visit Bernie as soon as possible because she suspected she had deep vein thrombosis. Bernie was later rushed to hospital. Instead of recognising that she’d prevented Joyce from doing her job and thanking her for informing Dr Turner of her suspicions, Bernie decided to make a "major complaint" to the supervisor of midwives.

Speaking ahead of Call the Midwife season 14, as per RadioTimes.com, Renee Bailey who plays Joyce talked about what her character faces and how she copes with this trauma.

"I feel like it's a lot of her balancing all the cases that she deals with, but also the intersections of being a Black woman from the Caribbean in this country, where she's not always going to be wanted, but still having to be a professional and having to paint on a smile and still go to work every day," she said. "[T]hat is a big thing for her this season as well… the mask that you have to wear as a health professional when you're experiencing or witnessing people experiencing things that you might have experienced yourself… and having to just push it all down and still show up."

Viewers will be waiting anxiously to find out whether the disciplinary hearing protects and supports Joyce, like she deserves. At the end of episode 6 fellow midwife Rosalind confided in Joyce that she and local pastor Cyril Robinson were going to go out together. His wife Lucille left Call the Midwife in season 12 and went back to Jamaica and now Cyril has decided to get a divorce.

Joyce kindly warned her friend that she and Cyril are from "different worlds", saying "The people who don’t like him won’t like you and vice versa. And they won’t be afraid of showing it, or saying it. It’s going to be so hard. Too hard, and I don’t want that for you."

Rosalind said that she and Cyril "want" it for themselves and in light of her remark, it’s likely that we might see the two of them go on a date together in episode 7. Meanwhile, we saw Sister Catherine talking about how her peace of mind has “so many enemies” and we can expect to see her make this confession to Sister Monica Joan next episode. On a lighter note, episode 7 will also include Dr Turner and his wife Shelagh taking the final steps to adopt May.