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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think Call the Midwife is too depressing

294 replies

jewelledsky · 24/02/2013 20:03

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

OP posts:
AmberLeaf · 26/02/2013 17:15

aufaniae you weren't in the slightest bit rude, the OP on the other hand......

dramatisations of real people's misery for light entertainment anytime. It's in the same camp as that awful misery lit

Its nothing like misery lit, if you watched it you would realise that, but don't listen to any of us that have actually watched it eh.

hackmum · 26/02/2013 17:29

Am I the only one who thinks it's been better without Miranda Hart? I didn't mind her, but now I think she's too much of a comic turn.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/02/2013 17:31

I like Miranda and I like the character of Chummy, but I think it is nice to see how it's written when she isn't there - it somehow works better when they're not so obviously trying to use Miranda as a 'character'.

I do like the bloke who plays her husband, though.

mrsjay · 26/02/2013 17:34

NO i like chummy she is a great character and I loathe Miranda the programme with a passion,

aufaniae · 26/02/2013 17:35

Apparently the author Jennifer Worth had a hand in the casting, and thought Miranda Hart was right for the role, very much like the RL Chummy. My flatmate has read all the books and says she's exactly like the description of her.

IIRC sadly Jennifer Worth died before the first series was aired, but it must have been great for her to know it was happening, I hope so anyway.

I haven't seen much of Miranda Hart's other stuff though, so it's not hard for me to imagine her as Chummy :)

aufaniae · 26/02/2013 17:36

Oh, did you mean she's too much of a comic turn within the show?

I thought you meant she'd done too much other comedy stuff so hard to take her seriously?

gingeme · 26/02/2013 17:38

I have read the books and find the programme has really brought them to life. It makes me grateful for our nhs and midwife system we have In the UK. The series deals with the subjects very well and the actors do a fantastic job of percieving life as It was in the 50s.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/02/2013 17:42

Does anyone else find the Jimmy/Jenny storyline annoying and odd?

In the books he was pictured as great fun and a bit silly and immature (which is nice), and she deals with the fact he got someone pregnant and married her in one sentence, and it's never suggested he was emotionally involved with someone else at the time.

I really don't like the way in the TV series he is so involved with someone else she's making his sandwitches and she thinks he's going to marry her, and he's all over Jenny. And she doesn't seem to think it's an issue.

If anything, that's a bit depressing.

aufaniae · 26/02/2013 18:19

Thanks ppeatfruit and AmberLeaf btw Grin

AmberLeaf · 26/02/2013 18:33
Wink
limitedperiodonly · 26/02/2013 18:52

I haven't read the books. I find the Jimmy/Jenny storyline depressing too but realistic because some people do important things without being that bothered about them in the long run.

I know someone who broke up with his long-term girlfriend about a long-running dispute about the timing of their first child, or whether she wanted one at all.

He got another woman, who'd always fancied him, pregnant and then wanted to go back to the original woman when he found out. He couldn't really understand why that wasn't a goer.

He now has another child with the second woman and they appear happy. I'm still friends with him and his ex who doesn't have children and probably never will. Who knows? I don't live in their pockets.

I am the consummate diplomat. Grin I like him very much but I find him very chilling in his pragmatism. It's buried in his childhood, I think, and I'm not going there.

Anyway, who could predict that a stupid Sunday night women's programme could be so deep? Wink

Oh and btw hackmum, I don't know how many people want to see the return of Chummy, but you're up against me and my mum

mrsjay · 26/02/2013 18:58

I find jenny a bit wet but I think that is the point as she was quite sheltered and the poverty is supposed to shock her like it is the viewer , that is what it is all about ( i hope)

IneedAgoldenNickname · 26/02/2013 19:06

I haven't read the books, but am starting the 1St one tonight. But for those who want something similar, try '12 babies on a bike' I can't remember who it's by, but it's about a midwife in the 1950s

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/02/2013 19:08

Mmm, you might be right limited.

mrs - me too! She's not half as wet in the books I think, but I think it actually works well to have a central character who is not too sympathetic - it lets us all judge her a bit! Grin

mrsjay · 26/02/2013 19:13

nk, but I think it actually works well to have a central character who is not too sympathetic - it lets us all judge her a bit!

yes of course but I guess if she wasnt exposed to disease poverty and a woman having baby after baby then she will judge I love how hard nosed pam ferris is , cant remember her nun name Grin I think shes great

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/02/2013 19:14

Oh, yes, she is great! Grin

Sister Evangelina. She is absolutely fantastic.

AmberLeaf · 26/02/2013 19:25

Yes I love sister Evangelina too.

No nonsense she is.

hackmum · 26/02/2013 20:21

aufaniae: did you mean she's too much of a comic turn within the show?

Yes. I didn't really notice until she'd gone, but it just seemed to work much better without her. IMHO, anyway. I don't want to get on the wrong side of limited and her mum. Smile

Rosyisgonnabeamummy · 26/02/2013 21:37

I only watch it to dream about wear a uniform like they did. Bring back starched pinny's, belts and hats

Lessthanaballpark · 26/02/2013 21:40

I love CTM. Yeah it's tad depressing but not when you get to the end, turn the TV off and look round at your lovely warm living room and give your DS a quick squeeze in gratitude that you didn't die giving birth to him and that you're not in a workhouse or bloody freezing cold tenement building.

That makes me proper happy that does. Grin

Mum2Luke · 26/02/2013 22:18

I am enjoying watching the new series, yes the episode last week was harrowing but it was showing a back street termination which would have happened. It wasn't actually written by Jennifer Worth this time around, have read all of her books and none of the stories depicted are in.

I am just thankful of what we have with our NHS with the conditions some people lived in. It showed when the X-Ray turned up to screen for TB, people eager to be x-rayed.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 26/02/2013 23:45

I think I heard they had other midwives from the same sort of time/area write in after the first series and they've used some of their stories as well as hers. Does that ring a bell with anybody else?

Oh, and I used to love Heartbeat, I had quite a crush on Rob.

bottleofbeer · 27/02/2013 00:02

The twopence to cross the mersey books are by Helen Forrester, there are actually four of them, The 4th one was written much later (it was originally a trilogy). Excellent social history books. She also wrote a lot of fiction so if it's the memoirs you want, you'll be wanting to get Twopence to cross the mersey, Liverpool miss, by the waters of Liverpool and Lime Street at two :)

Sorry for the rubbish grammar but I cba tonight!

mumnosbest · 27/02/2013 00:34

mum2 i recognise the stories from j.worths books. i wonder if you've missed one. think there are 4. the only bit that i don't remember reading is the suggestion of a relationship between the doctor and nun.

SaggyOldClothCatpuss · 27/02/2013 00:54

Ive decided IADNBU, and I'll take Top Gear over watching dramatisations of real people's misery for light entertainment anytime. It's in the same camp as that awful misery lit
I wonder if the OP watches reality tv, Embarassing Bodies, Jeremy Kyle...
All far worse, real car crash tv. Other peoples exaggerated misfortunes turned into entertainment. Usually made up, scripted, designed to tittilate.
At least CTM is actually based on something real. Whats wrong with social history? Its what made us what we are today. Ive read the books, the series is pretty true to the literature. That is how our grandparents lived. That is what life was like. It was hard, it was horrible and it was cruel.
Id far rather my DCs watched stuff like this than the trash that usually passes for entertainment!

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