Call The Midwife #2

[ChastityDingle]

I thought Nurse Crane was going to be an old-fashioned, grumpy bossy-boots at first! She was also a bit sharp with one of the other midwives and I thought I would never like her. By the end of the episode, my opinion of her had completely changed and I absolutely adore her. She is the one I would most want to be friends with and the one I would choose to help me deliver my baby if I were to ever procreate. She’s very modern in a lot of ways ( drives, vegetarian, atheist/agnostic which were ally pretty uncommon for people, especially women to be in the late 50’s/early 60’s), organised, likes learning/challenging herself ( Spanish classes), is really organised ( Rolodex), and just generally has a really modern outlook on situations. She offers practical help, warm and comforting but realistic reassurance and is still open to finding love ( the man in her Spanish class) she and loves clothes/fashion ( she got just as excited as the younger characters when the new uniforms came in, a few Seasons ago now).

I agree. As much as I hated seeing others leaving, and would love ones like Chummy to return, if Nurse Crane left, I would not enjoy the show as much at all. The minute she comes along to any situation and starts with 'lass...' I know all will be well. Or if it's not well, she will deal with everything so bravely and appropriately.

I love her friendship with Miss Higgins too. Something I liked last night was when Miss Higgins said 'present at death' could be put on the form. It seemed such a small thing, but it wasn't, for the woman who had just lost her partner.
And trust Miss Higgins to know her forms

 

[smellyfootballboots]

I don’t know my thoughts on this if I’m honest on one hand it wouldn’t feel a Sunday without CTM on the other hand I do feel it’s kind of run it’s course.

Me too. I feel like the show is limping along through lack of stories. What everyone liked about CTM was they were real stories of women's actual lives at the time. The idea that Trixie and whatshisface would really have Nancy and Collette as her bridesmaids at her society wedding is absurd. The show has lost it's personal touch and intimacy with the stories of women at those times.

 

[Lizzie Mintdrop]

When the disabled were segregated. New Statesman December 2010 – UK Disability History Month

ukdhm.org

This is a difficult read as it details how disabled people were treated, within living memory.

I worked in a care setting in the late 90s and we had a male service user who was in his 60s. He had been institutionalised as a small child and lived in horrendous conditions until he was in his 40s. Even after living in a community setting for 20 odd years, he gulped down boiling hot drinks and wolfed down his food because if he didn't eat and drink fast he thought they would be taken away because in the institution he was in, when someone came round with the food they were followed closely by someone clearing up. He was very nervous and anxious and always darted his eyes round a room before he entered it. If a new carer came in they had to be accompanied by someone he knew or he couldn't cope. There was lots of abuse back then. I hate the sugar coating and the falsifying of history. I'm woke, I love a woke storyline in a contemporary drama but the 60s weren't woke. FFS, even the 90s, 00s and to some extent even the 10s weren't woke.

 

[HannahC]

I'm so desperate for a prequel series about Sister Monica Joan's early life as a nun and her and the other nuns working through World War 2!

 

[KTC]

Plot lines for Christmas Special??

- Sister Julienne I think is keeping a health secret - would they dare kill her off at Xmas?!
- Trixie returns & pregnant from their rendezvous
- First epidural?
- or another heart warming nativity with the Turner kids ...they might even gain a voice?

I really don't know why they gave them so many children as the child actors don't do anything. I would much rather watch Shelagh as a midwife instead of a stepford wife who's main line is "oh Patrick"

 

[MyRightTit]

That final episode really was shit. So far fetched & unbelievable. Why did the young couple’s car crash? Who were all Trixie’s hundreds of wedding gifts from? Did I miss her other brother they talked about? What was the pint of Colette’s nose bleeds? Did Nancy mention applying for that job before & I missed it? I’d have told SMJ to feck off when she went to the church & insisted on doing a reading. Could the Turners be any more twee & annoying? Why was every male vague acquaintance in Poplar dressed in a morning suit? Ridiculous!

 

[greenrosie]

I would like to see the introduction of some younger characters - particularly ones like young Jenny and Trixie who were brilliant at their jobs. I like Nancy but I feel how she was introduced (a little bit inept, socially awkward, etc) is difficult to shake and that's how her character is mostly known. Albeit, there is some clear character development.

Anyhow, I miss the days when Jenny, Trixie and Cynthia would be getting ready and going dancing, dating, etc. A lot of the focus now is primarily the families and although its sweet, I'd like the see the fun - not the forced fun of harvest festivals, or another community ball thingy that you just know never happened.

 

[50sGirl]

It’s Dr Turner, there’s literally nothing he can’t do, so that’s possible too!

True. Sheila would be on the other side of the river shouting “Oh Patrick!”

 

[50sGirl]

Absolutely agree - this wasn’t a ‘thing’ until pretty recently. Daft mistake really when they are generally very good at staying on period.

Tbh in this series they seem to have been using modern ideas which wouldn’t have been correct in the 1960s.

For example the Shah family won the photo competition to advertise ice cream. Imho I’m certain, had there been such a competition in the 60s, then a white family would definitely have been chosen.

Also, the Irish girl with Catholic parents who insisted she keep the baby would more likely have disowned her back then.

Last series we had Dr Turner with his liberal acceptance of homosexuality which again was unlikely to have happened back then.

It’s a period drama so they shouldn’t be altering it to fit today’s values.

 

[Miss Begotten]

To be honest, as long as Phyllis is in it I’m not overly bothered about anyone else. I’d quite happily watch an entire series of her marching around Poplar being fabulous.

 

[Tublet83]

None of the midwife’s have even commented/noticed that Lucille has left!

 

[50sGirl]

1969 is the year of the first heart transplant so get ready for Dr Turner performing a transplant in clinic and then going home for tea

You’ve missed out a major part of the storyline.
Not only does Dr Turner perform the heart transplant, he is the actual donor too. That man is remarkable! Super Doc saves the day again!

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

I think CTM has gone a bit too chocolate box in recent series.

I remember the series were Mary was pregnant with a pimp at 15 and she was forced to give up her baby and it drove her mad to the point where she took someone else’s. That was much more in keeping with the times.

Same with the hairdresser who worked from home and she got pregnant with a mixed race baby and her husband kicked off, so she gave it up for adoption. Again, much more realistic.

Of course some husbands did “accept” babies from outside marriage and of course, some unmarried mothers did keep their babies, but not as many.

My ex’s nan was conceived during the war as the result of an affair between his great nan and a married American solider. Despite it being the 40’s and her being a single mum, she did keep her baby.

 

[Glaschelle]

The first couple of series were based on the books and I think we're more realistic regarding people's attitudes etc.

However after the original Jenny Lee stories ran out (she moved into hospice care), I'm sure they said that they started using stories that other midwifes had sent them.

But to be honest, the pass few series have moved into Soapy territory.

No way would Nancy have contact with her daughter, Cyril and Lucille would face daily racism, Reggie wouldn't be a much loved member of the community, Trixie's alcoholism would be well hidden and Phyllis would be retired at 60 - compulsory retirement.

Also what age are Trixie and Sister Monica Joan supposed to be???

I still like the programme. But it doesn't make me cry like it used to.

 

[xvictoriax]

Please don't let Mother Mildred come back. I can't stand Miriam Margolyes.

I never get the adoration for MM, she just rants with the odd swear word mixed in for shock value. It’s not clever or particularly interesting.

 

[HannahC]

The thing that annoys me now about CTM is that previous storylines are never mentioned again.
In a much earlier series Fred had an adult daughter who wasn’t happy when he married Violet.
Why wasn’t she shown visiting her critically ill father? She wasn’t even mentioned. Poor writing.

He had two daughters and grandsons that have never been mentioned again, and Violet mentioned her son once and then never again!

I hate what they've done to Trixie. Where is the trixie that performed a c-section (as unrealistic as that was)? who strongly advocated for women's health and abortion rights, even going on the radio to debate it, who fought so hard to be sober..and she's now been reduced to shopping for sofa's and calling herself Lady Aylward.

 

[smellyfootballboots]

Spoiler

For me, the magic of the Christmas specials has gone. Cyril never mentioned his wife Lucille, Shelagh getting in a flap about the present from Hong Kong and Nurse Crane was very under utilised. It was set in 1968 but with the social values of 2023 - no one batted an eyelid at the mixed race baby's birth and Nancy (a single unmarried mother) permitted to live in her place of employment with her illegitimate daughter! As ever, the endless background music is a distraction.

It's lost it's magic. You are spot on about Nancy, the mixed race baby but also Trixie's gay brother would not be so open about his sexuality! Being gay was illegal back then. I couldn't be bothered to get to the end of the episode. I've lost any interest in sister MJ (she has been a dull back story for years and to focus an Xmas special on the death thoughts of an elderly woman really is a stretch). They have stopped concentrating on the mother's and the stories of real people, which is typical of todays writers and the over woke BBC in general trying to re-write reality, the show is suffering because of it. What on earth the point of Nurse Crane even being in the episode, complete waste of a decent actress.

 

[Gold_7]

Has anyone else read the books?

Yes I read them all before the show came out. I’ve also been to the original Nonnatus House.

 

[ElectricDreams]

I think I only watch out of habit now, it's a shadow of the show that it used to be. I don't know if I can watch another series. The final straw for me was the sickeningly twee nativity scene where Trixie was illuminated by the light from the manger

 

[BigMavis]

When Sheila was singing Frosty I was sssshhusshing her, Sheila just let the children have their moment