Call the Midwife’s beloved Christmas special has finally returned and welcomes back fan-favourite faces. However, in the midst of all the joyful festivities (as well as the undercurrent of achingly-painful stories of hardship), there’s one person noticeably absent from the action.
Trixie’s other half Matthew is nowhere to be seen.
While this is no great surprise given the controversy surrounding actor Olly Rix’s exit, Matthew’s absence is growing harder and harder to explain away, though Call the Midwife does its best.
While gathered round Nonnatus’ dining room table, nurse Phyllis Crane shares how pleased she is that Trixie is moving back to London. The transnational nurse offers a small smile before confirming her husband’s status.
“Matthew has to stay in New York until autumn,” she tells the group before indirectly explaining her reason for returning without him. “Jonty’s starting pre-prep in Easter, I needed to get him home and settled.”
BBC
No more is said about the matter, as no more time needs to be spent fretting over Matthew’s whereabouts for the remainder of the episode nor the state of their marriage.
No, there will not be any romantic smooches under the mistletoe for Mr and Mrs Aylward this Christmas and yes they are doing just fine.
BBC
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However, Trixie’s clever throwaway line does more than just explain why Matthew will not be stringing up Christmas lights on this side of the Atlantic. With just a few clever, precise words Call the Midwife appears to have written him out of the entire upcoming season 15.
How have we come to such a conclusion? Well, with between all the dramatic births and chaotic personal lives of the characters, even the keenest of fans could easily have missed that Call the Midwife tends to stick to a seasonal timeline.
New seasons of the show usually pick up in the spring and wrap in the autumn before returning for the Christmas special.
With Matthew scheduled to be away until autumn, the series could easily reach its conclusion without having to produce a living, breathing Mr Aylward.
BBC
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Up until now, the newlywed’s relationship has survived on Trixie flying back and forth between Poplar and New York with some mention of how Matthew is getting on with the new business. Now it seems the same is intended for season 15, but how sustainable is this approach?
Call the Midwife creator Heidi Thomas and her team may have been able to successfully buy themselves more time with another deft pivot around the whole Matthew debacle, but eventually a decision will have to be made about the future of the character on the show. Simply put, is he in or is he out?
Olly Courtney//BBC
It has been almost two years since Rix’s rather abrupt exit in March 2024. The actor has since moved on to his role in Casualty as Dr. Flynn Byron, but fans of the period drama are still hankering for his return.
The Christmas special sees Trixie earn herself the prize of the first mince pie and a wish for correctly guessing the missing ingredient in Sister Veronica’s chutney. While we know she will 100% be using her win to pray for a new midwifery case, we also hope there’s a little magic left over for Matthew’s return too.
Call the Midwife airs on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. Â For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. Â She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
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