To think that call the midwife is promoting smoking!

[ScottishJo31]

Just for the record I am no puritan or prude in fact I would consider myself a social smoker... Therefore I am not judgmental about smoking) however in the recent few episodes of Call the midwife... literally every other scene involves the cast and extras smoking... I can understand the need to show how life was in the 1960s ( more people smoked and fewer knew the dangers) but someone is lighting up in nearly every scene.. in the last episode a pregnant woman was offered a fag! ( again I get that pregnant woman didn't know the risks)
However It just seems like overkill, and almost like cigarette companies are advertising through the show!

What are other people's thoughts on this?

I noticed there was a lot of smoking in this weeks episode in particular. I dont think they're promoting it though.

When I was born in 1967 at home, the midwife sat on the end of my mother’s bed to finish her cigarette before getting down to work. The doctor who popped into the fug of Embassy to check I’d survived had an onion hanging from the rear view mirror in his car to ward away the common cold. Times have changed. So I think a cigarette in every scene is accurate. The rest of the programme makes me vomit mind.

was surprised how obvious its been in recent CTMW episodes.
I think there has always been a lot of smoking on CTM Doctor Turner used to smoke a lot, even in the surgery but there was an episode when he gave it up I think when Tim showed him some early research about its dangers.
I haven't seen any more smoking lately.

I noticed an increase of smoking in this weeks episode and suspected that they are building up to a smoking related episode.

My midwife told me only 5 years back that its better for the baby if I continued to smoke 4 a day, than the stress it would cause if I tried to stop. Not sure if such advice is usual or I had a weird midwife! She also asked if I drank, and I said no, and she said if I did, it would be better to continue drinking but cut down.

I wasn’t suggesting that the midwives smoking in the bedroom was unrealistic for the time, but them all lighting up (as opposed to just party girl Trixie) was unusual for the programme.

It's depicting a point in time when a lot of people smoked, including pregnant women! All my grandparents did, they gave up in the 80s around when I was born, when it became apparent it isn't the best thing to do.

I remember going to the cinema to see the 101 Dalmations (?), and the woman in front of me smoking menthol cigarettes the entire film < not envy

OP, how how do you feel about Pirate parties for children?

@ShagMeRiggins

I was a child in the 60s and remember my whole family smoking! Many of their friends smoked too .It was seen as something "to calm the nerves!" Love CTM so much though! We lived in North London in a semi but the whole atmosphere is indicative of city life then,BTW does anyone remember "The Royal " about a 1960s hospital in Yorkshire ,The Surgeon is smoking a pipe FFS!

Neither of my parents smoked (60s). They were pretty much social pariahs because of it.

No hth!

If the programme is promoting anything it’s inoculating children against terrible diseases which is a bloody good thing imo

In 1992 at my local maternity hospital there was a smoking room next to the antenatal ward if any mother to be fancied lighting up.

I remember when Eastenders was the same but I think it'll be Doctor Turner who gets lung cancer.

Don’t watch shows set in historical times if you can’t bear to see things like smoking, blatant sexism & racism, gory executions, abject poverty and disease, animal abuse, etc

Most of history was bad days for most people. It would be wrong to whitewash and romanticise things.

I remember going on a first holiday with my parents (80s)and having to sit in the smoking area of the plane, the air on planes was cleaner then.

My dad never smoked, my mum had a couple a couple of times a week at 4.00pm when a neighbour popped in for a tea and a chat. She used to smoke those cigarillos when she was pregnant with my sister (late 70s) and have a Guinness a day under doctors orders

Don’t watch Mad Men you’ll implode!

It's how it was back then!
Anyway, it is THE least cool programme and my kids wouldn't be seen dead watching it ... so I'm not sure exactly who their target audience for corruption would be!

in another episode did the doctor give up smoking because his son deliberate smoked in front of him & the doctor was shown smokers lungs etc - BUT my dm & df smoked (ww2 the NAAFI use to either sell cheap cigarettes or free, cant I remember which, but they weren't rationed. Which meant a lot of people got addicted in that stressful time)

I used to smoke whilst I was feeding both my children, also smoked through both pregnancies. Yes, we were told we’d have smaller babies if we smoked, which was deemed to be a good thing. Makes me shudder now. Everyone smoked.

@PlanDeRaccordement you forgot incest especially if you watch history or drug addiction if you watch Sherlock Holmes!

In 1999 I was on holiday in Europe and broke my finger. The consultant explained there was damage to the bone while merrily puffing away.

My mum asked her doctor if smoking was dangerous whilst pregnant and got told ‘ no it’s your lung the smoke goes into’. I am 40 and remember how minging hair and clothes used to smell after a night in the pub 🤢