No sex please, it's Call The Midwife: Show's creator says lack of raunchy scenes is the secret to its popularity

It has already proved a runaway ratings success.

But the creator of BBC drama series Call the Midwife has now insisted that the programme’s popularity lies in the absence of sex scenes that litter downmarket soap operas.

Instead, screenwriter Heidi Thomas, who has penned all three series of the popular period drama, said viewers enjoy the programme because of the way it portrays ‘chaste romances’ of the 1950s, which she says are so different from modern-day, real-life relationships.

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Stars of the show: The creator of Call The Midwife says the show's lack of raunchy scenes add to its popularity

Miss Thomas, 51, also said she is happy to stay faithful to the bestselling original memoirs of former midwife Jennifer Worth, on which the show is based.

Speaking about the drama’s success, which has drawn an average of almost 11m viewers for the first two series, she said: ‘We’ve never had sex in Midwife and we never shall.

‘We have the consequences of it, certainly, but I always try to look at things within the historic context. In the East End of the 1950s – or so a lot of people have told us – children playing out in the street would see the midwives arrive and they thought the babies came in the box on the back of the bike.

‘We’re not a soap, we’re a medical drama, but we do tell a story about women in the 1950s and it’s quite nice to show these rather chaste romances, which are so different from the ones girls have today. It’s important, as well, always to acknowledge that the Call the Midwife stories were based, originally, on memoir, and that they’re always looked at through the filter of hindsight.’

'Through hindsight': The series is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth - who worked as a midwife in London in the 50s

Call the Midwife has been a huge hit since the first series was broadcast in 2012. The programme, set in the East End of London during the 1950s, tells the story of a group of midwives, played by Jessica Raine, Jenny Agutter and Miranda Hart. Similarly to Downton Abbey, which has also been a huge ratings success, the programme includes little reference to sex.

The third series will begin on Sunday night, although Miss Thomas, who has also penned drama series including Cranford, Ballet Shoes and Madame Bovary, has had to create fictional stories after using most of Miss Worth’s original material from her trilogy of books in the first two series.

Speaking to the Radio Times she added: ‘I just don’t feel that I can treat Midwife like any other show I’ve been involved in. I feel so strongly about the issues we cover that it’s become a sort of cause. And people love it so much. We’ve got a lot of fans who expect certain things from the show – my great dread is that I would ever disappoint them.’

Increasingly popular: The hit show - which stars comedienne Miranda Hart, pictured getting married in the series - was first broadcast in 2012

Jennifer Worth died of cancer in May 2011, just months before the first series of the drama was first broadcast. Miss Thomas has said that material for the upcoming series was gathered by a researcher who spent hours interviewing former midwives who had worked during the 1950s.

One of the upcoming episodes features a love story between a young woman who has Down’s Syndrome and a character who has cerebral palsy. Miss Thomas said she has also worked with disability organisations who help ensure that the storylines are accurate.

She said: ‘My brother was born with Down’s syndrome in 1970 – sadly, he died in 1985 – and my mother was one of the first generation to rear a severely disabled child at home. Before that the practice had been to put such children into institutions.

At the dance: Characters Jimmy and Jenny let their hair down

‘So we have a love story between two people living in a home – a young lady who has Down’s syndrome and a character reprised from the last series who has cerebral palsy. When we cover what you might broadly term an “issue”, we like to bring the relevant body on board, and we give them script approval.

‘So if they say, “We feel that this misrepresents this issue,” we would look into that and make the necessary changes.

‘I feel that a well-written period drama will shed light on the way we live today. It also provides a safe environment to discuss issues that are timeless. Because Call the Midwife is a period drama, people don’t have to engage with the issues we discuss in a deep, serious way if they don’t want to.

‘If they want to scoop the top layer off, the way we might scoop the cream off a trifle and say, “I’m just going to enjoy the music and clothes and the babies and the funny old men,” that’s a totally valid way of enjoying the show.

‘Others like a little bit of grit with their food and they really like the fact that we dig deeper and invite them into the darker side of life. It’s to do with tone, I think, as much as with content. And I know it sounds sentimental, or possibly a bit surprising, but ultimately, it’s done with love.’

Jacqui Meddings, entertainment editor of Cosmopolitan, has attributed the success of period dramas such as Downton to old-fashioned success and ‘pure escapism’.

‘If the emails and tweets we receive every Sunday evening are anything to go by, life at Downton definitely appeals to the modern woman,’ she wrote in Reader’s Digest.

‘Men are gentlemen, relationships are openly romantic and everyone dresses beautifully for dinner. What’s not to like? ‘What’s really interesting is how women react to archetypal Edwardian men like the valet Mr Bates. ‘Even in 2013, we’re hard-wired to be attracted to that kind of noble, charming, devoted alpha male.

‘Mr Bates sets a wonderful example of how you should treat the ones you love.’