Mumsnet Talk

for a Sunday night and to almost be tempted by Top Gear as a light viewing alternative? Where is Downton Abbey?

Haven't seen the TV series but I read the books when DS was a baby and they are harrowing (and made me very thankful that we now have the NHS and the benefits system, even if they're both far from perfect).

YABU, it's a damn sight less depressing then what's going on in the real world.

Depressing? I always find it to be pretty feel god viewing!

It certainly isn't anywhere near depressing enough to make me want to watch Top Gear...

It's realistic. The sad moments are countered with happy ones. I love it. Very well done series.

I read this week's in the book and swore I'd never read that chapter again.
On TV it's nowhere near as bad.

Oh dear, I've recorded it and after these comments now I don't want to watch it !

I never think the second series of anything lives up to the first so, I haven't been bothered about watching it.

It's meant to be realistic. Life was pretty grim for poorer people in the 1950s. (Cameron is trying to return us to that era now I think !)

I love the programme. And it's an interesting history lesson for dd.

Ah, at last, I'm not the only one with a downer on CTM.

My mum recommended it to me as light Sunday evening viewing that both me and DD (9) would love.

So I sat down to watch it. Didn't "get" it, but no problems as it was light enough for me to ignore while DD watched go on Mumsnet

Then I started to pay attention as DD started asking questions about domestic violence, contraception, still birth etc etc.

I could strangle my bloody mother!! Luckily I was able to answer DD's questions as best as I could and that was that - but I don't really want to have to sit there on a Sunday night and explain how some people don't want to get pregnant and that in the 1950's contraception was fairly new and well, it had a lot to do with social change and.....(decided to stick to the easier option of if a lady doesn't want to get pregnant she takes a tablet that stops the sperm and egg meeting)

As much as it isnt for me, program/entertainment wise, people do keep telling me how bloody marvelous it is and look at me like I'm some sort of bunny-stabbing, kitten worrier!

It's depressing that Antiques Roadshow has gone to make room for it (AR dweeb emoticon).

It makes me grateful that we no longer live like that, that contraception amass pain relief are readily available.

somewherewest they had the nhs at the time ctm is set too

I always end up a bit teary at the end of each episode because it feels like a love letter to the NHS.
Part of me wishes we could go back to those days.....weird as it seems.

I read the books and sobbed at certain parts, and have never watched it on the TV as I find that a programme makes things much more "real" to me and is more upsetting iyswim.
It's like I can read horror novels, or zombies or something and be OK, but I cannot watch a horror film or I have nightmares. I knew I wouldn't be able to watch CTM without getting all upset at the sad parts.

What does amaze me is that this program is set in the decade that my parents were born - so watching it makes you realise how far things have come in such a short period of time.

However, it still ain't worthy of my viewing is watching Top Gear instead watches in horror as I get deleted from MN

Real life is.

Yanbu I saw the Christmas episode and refused to watch any more!

Yanbu I saw the Christmas episode and refused to watch any more!

I love it, it seems to have a balance between the nice and the nasty and it shows how far things have come in a relatively short time.

It makes me feel pretty grateful too.

My Mum was born in the year that this was set in, and even though my Nan has told me some pretty eye-raising stories about how things were for her, to see it in context really just makes me thankful for how good we have it now.

I can't believe this was less than 60 years ago!

I always thought it was light entertainment handling real issues in a non melodramatic way. As for the posters who are saying they are thankful for the nhs, this programme shows a time when the nhs was in existence. All the midwives and doctors are part of the nhs and the treatment these women were getting was all free. If you want harrowing, try looking at something that is properly pre nhs, ie, before 1948. If you couldnt afford a midwife then, you didnt get one. Had to make do with your mom, or other females around.

It makes me incredibly grateful that I was born into a world where pain relief and social housing and benefits are available for those that need it.

It is sad viewing sometimes but especially last week I thought that even though I have never been in the position of wanting or needing to terminate a pregnancy, at least it would be available and I wouldn't be butchered in the process.

My mum was the oldest of 12 children living in 2 rooms in a country where the nhs did not exist. She's only in her early sixties. It really wasn't that long ago.

I dare say in another fifty years time, people will look back and think we had it bad which is weird!

Are we watching the same programme OP? I find it lovely and uplifting and yes sometimes sad things happen. The word heartwarming comes to mind rather than depressing. Perfect Sunday night viewing and I love it.

The Christmas episode was especially harrowing, when the Nuns were bathing the poor old lady that had been in the workhouse. One of DH great great Grandmothers died in the workhouse, he discovered this when researching his family tree. It was a bit of a horrible shock.

I think series like this do a service because it shows how grim life was without free contraception.