“Call the Midwife,” the highest-rated drama debut in BBC history, will premiere on the Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN) Sunday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. The first season will air Sundays, Sept. 30-Nov. 4, at 7 each night. 

Based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth, “Call the Midwife” is a moving and intimate story of midwifery in London’s East End in the 1950s. The series follows a young Jenny Lee as she and her fellow midwives, attached to an order of nursing nuns, navigate the crowded East End streets that teem with children, workers and a culture remarkably different from the wealthy English countryside where Jenny was raised. 

The drama unfolds as Jenny meets her patients, including one woman experiencing her 25th pregnancy and a 15-year-old prostitute carrying her first child. Initially shocked by the health and living conditions of the East End, Jenny soon learns to admire the families she works with, along with the sisters and fellow midwives who witness the daily drama of life in this vibrant community. 

Written by Heidi Thomas (“Upstairs Downstairs”) and directed by Philippa Lowthorpe and Jamie Payne, “Call the Midwife” completed its first season as the highest-rated BBC new drama debut on record. A second season has been commissioned. 

“Call the Midwife” stars Jessica Raine as Jenny Lee, along with Jenny Agutter as Sister Julienne, Pam Ferris as Sister Evangelina, Miranda Hart as Chummy, Judy Parfitt as Sister Monica Joan, Helen George as Trixie Franklin, Bryony Hannah as Cynthia Miller, Laura Main as Sister Bernadette and Cliff Parisi as Fred. Vanessa Redgrave provides the voice of the mature Jennifer.