--- name: "Heidi Thomas" canonical: "https://film.one/person/heidi-thomas" fi1m_id: "heidi-thomas" imdb_id: "nm0858912" tmdb_id: 158768 wikidata_id: "Q5698972" roles: ["Writer","Producer"] born: "13 August 1962" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 71 average_as: "writer" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-10-21T04:29:27.109339+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Heidi Thomas ## Identity Heidi Thomas - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/heidi-thomas - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** heidi-thomas - **IMDb ID:** nm0858912 - **TMDB ID:** 158768 - **Wikidata ID:** Q5698972 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Thomas, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5698972, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0858912/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/158768 Writer and producer. Born 13 August 1962 in Garston, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Producer - **Born:** 13 August 1962, Garston, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK - **Active:** 2007–present - **Frequently works with:** [Ann Tricklebank](https://film.one/person/ann-tricklebank.md), [Bally Gill](https://film.one/person/bally-gill.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 71, as writer, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 84 (1), 2010s 80 (1), 2020s 50 (1) - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Genres:** Drama 3 - **Screen time:** 2 hours of reviewed films - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Thomas, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5698972, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0858912/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/158768 ## Coming up - *Call the Midwife: Sisters in Arms* (2026-12-25), Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife-sisters-in-arms.md) ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Cranford*](https://film.one/tv/cranford.md) (84) - **Netflix:** [*Call the Midwife*](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife.md) (80) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Heidi Thomas > Heidi Thomas takes women’s work seriously, and her television drama is often funny and moving. We rate her highly, with one reservation: she can keep explaining the value of kindness after her characters have made it plain. In *Cranford* (2007), staying respectable takes effort, particularly when there is less money to do it with. Heidi Thomas lets the older women’s worries matter, even when those worries are faintly ridiculous. Her adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell gives Eileen Atkins and Judi Dench dialogue they can enjoy without making every exchange a bid for applause. Directors Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson allow these concerns time to become interesting. The opening is slow and the community sometimes too comfortable, but we never feel the women have been included merely to furnish a period setting. After stage work, Thomas moved into screen adaptations with *Madame Bovary* (2000) and *I Capture the Castle* (2003). *Cranford* helped establish her reputation for period ensembles; creating *Call the Midwife* (2012) gave her a continuing subject in the practical work of caring for other people. Pregnancy and childbirth in 1950s London require competence as well as sympathy, and the series understands how reassuring it is to be around someone useful. Her research draws on period archives, medical reports and newspapers. That attention suits a writer whose characters have a job to get on with. *Allelujah* (2023), her screen adaptation of Alan Bennett’s play for Richard Eyre, shows both the strength and the limit of this approach. We were moved by David Bradley and Russell Tovey at the hospital bedside because neither man can quite say what he needs to. Thomas writes a conversation that allows the father and son to avoid what matters; Eyre holds the shot and lets their averted eyes do some of the work. Elsewhere, the film’s wish to explain itself becomes overbearing. We cannot recommend it on the strength of that bedside scene. The same urge to find a lesson sometimes softens the harder stories in *Call the Midwife*, although its performances usually make the comfort persuasive. Thomas is better when she gives people something to attend to than when she tells us what their care means. She notices the effort involved in keeping somebody else calm, or in maintaining standards when money is short. Those are substantial subjects for a drama, provided the writing leaves the actors enough to do. Start with *Cranford*, and give its opening time. ## Biography Heidi Thomas is an English screenwriter and playwright. She was born on 13 August 1962 in Garston, Liverpool. After reading English at Liverpool University, she first gained attention with her play Shamrocks and Crocodiles, which won the John Whiting Award in 1985. Thomas is best known as the creator and writer of the BBC series Call the Midwife (2012–present). She has also written screenplays for the BBC adaptations of Cranford (2007–2009), Upstairs Downstairs (2010–2012), Little Women (2017) and Ballet Shoes (2007), as well as the film Allelujah (2023). She created the series Lilies (2007). Thomas has received awards including the Royal Television Society Best Writer award and the Broadcasting Press Guild award for Cranford. She is married to actor Stephen McGann, who appears in Call the Midwife. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *Allelujah* (2023), Fi1m 50, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/allelujah.md) - *Call the Midwife* (2012), Fi1m 80, Writer, Creator, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife.md) - *Cranford* (2007), Fi1m 84, Writer, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/tv/cranford.md) ## Complete filmography (15) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Call the Midwife: Sisters in Arms* (2026), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator — coming soon, [page](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife-sisters-in-arms.md) - *Allelujah* (2023), Screenplay — Fi1m 50, [page](https://film.one/film/allelujah.md) - *Little Women* (2017), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator - *Call the Midwife* (2012), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife.md) - *Upstairs Downstairs* (2010), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator - *Ballet Shoes* (2008), Screenplay - *Cranford* (2007), series, Writer, Screenplay — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/cranford.md) - *Lilies* (2007), series, Creator - *I Capture the Castle* (2003), Screenplay - *Kiss and Tell* (1996), Screenplay - *The Lifeboat* (1994), series, Writer - *Frank Stubbs Promotes* (1993), series, Writer - *Soldier Soldier* (1991), series, Writer - *Our Lady Blue* (1987), Writer - *ScreenPlay* (1986), series, Writer --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/heidi-thomas