SPECIAL PREMIERE: Many British programs, between seasons, offer up one-shot specials on Christmas Day, presenting stand-alone episodes of some of England’s most popular long-running programs. Doctor Who is one such show given the holiday special treatment, and Call the Midwife is another. This latest special has been withheld from U.S. distribution until now, because PBS programmers feared it might be too bleak for the holidays. Its plot, which skips forward a year, finds several of the midwives abandoned by their former husbands, and left alone caring for their own newborns. Why PBS thought Easter and Passover weekend was a better time to import this particular, well-titled special is beyond me. Don’t bother checking local listings.