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Original poster

Call the midwife

540 replies

JazzAnnNonMouse · 20/01/2013 19:41

Tonight?

OP posts:
mrsjay · 21/01/2013 09:22

. The rest was fine,but I did think the abused wife was rather smartly dressed for someone living in supposed squalor. She just didn't look right.

I think she was keeping herself 'looking nice' for her husband he was dapper too she was very young and didnt see anything past her husband she wouldnt have seen her dirty house or scared little girl she couldn't see past her romantic notion of her husband she was brainwashed poor girl,

ppeatfruit · 21/01/2013 09:36

yes mrsjay that 's what I was thinking about the poor 'used' wife. I noticed the TV they had which was probably on the H.P. they could only've got that sort of money if she'd been on the game (i never caught what the shxx husband did for a job).

Original poster
JazzAnnNonMouse · 21/01/2013 09:39

Would she have had a reasonable defence back then or would they not have seen her controlling abusive husband as worse than her?

OP posts:
mrsjay · 21/01/2013 09:41

she would have been seen as more guilty than him she left her children regardless of what he did, men I would assume were not seen as main carers but they both did go to prison for it,

Original poster
JazzAnnNonMouse · 21/01/2013 09:52

True Sad
He was a total shit.
Does anyone know what prison sentence they wouldve recieved?

OP posts:
mrsjay · 21/01/2013 09:53

oh not sure a few years Id expect,

LaVolcan · 21/01/2013 10:01

They must have listened to us when Chummy is made to say six fingers dilated because this was an accurate description of the way they measured in those days. Presumably 1 finger = 1 cm because someone fully dilated was 'ten fingers'. During the last series I remember we on MN took the scriptwriters to task for talking about dilation in cms.

I don't think the doctor would have been rushing round with gas and air though - another piece of dramatic licence. I think there was something called Minnett apparatus which midwives could bring round.

mrsjay · 21/01/2013 10:05

they wouldn't be able to get the gas and air on the bikes though Grin but yes his running himself ragged was just for dramatic effect

ppeatfruit · 21/01/2013 10:17

I haven't read the books but thought it was all true, so not quite then? Hmm

LaVolcan · 21/01/2013 10:30

I have just found this:
www.britishpathe.com/video/science-aids-mothers-1/query/Babies

Almost unbelievably it seems the Minnett apparatus was carried on the backs of bikes.

seoladair · 21/01/2013 11:19

My 20 month old has a 1970s Silver Cross Grosvenor and it looks identical to the pram in last night's Call the Midwife. I'm sure that model wasn't around in 1959. Sorry for the pedantry - I love Call the Midwife!

zukiecat · 21/01/2013 11:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

atthewelles · 21/01/2013 12:39

I really enjoyed it. It was also nice to see Trixie and the younger nun being given decent storylines. Trixie is very underused and I think she's a great character. I know she was a very minor character in the book (in fact I don't think she was a real person but an amalgamation of a few people Jennifer Worth worked with) but I think she works brilliantly on telelvision. There's also nothing like a bit of hopeless yearning and unrequited love for dramatic effect.

Heavywheezing · 21/01/2013 13:05

Does chummy leave in the book? Just when she had settled down too.

LaVolcan · 21/01/2013 13:10

I'm not sure whether she leaves during the book, but at some stage it says that she and her husband go off to Africa. That might be afterwards when Jennifer Worth had moved on. Can't remember exactly.

mayhew · 21/01/2013 13:22

Chummy and husband moved to Sierra Leone as missionaries where they had several children and he helped develop their police service and she taught midwifery. They could do with going back now!

Original poster
JazzAnnNonMouse · 21/01/2013 14:18

Does chummy leave soon? Sad

OP posts:
hackmum · 21/01/2013 17:37

" Presumably 1 finger = 1 cm because someone fully dilated was 'ten fingers'."

Well, it's a bit odd. You wouldn't actually put six fingers inside someone's vagina, would you? I've never heard anybody talk about more than "three fingers" dilated, which I think is between 3 and 5cm. But maybe it was different in ye olden days.

mrsjay · 21/01/2013 17:39

I think they used to get ten fingers up there hack Grin

BartletForTeamGB · 21/01/2013 18:11

Of course they didn't put both hands up to check dilatation but it was done the same as now with 1 finger being roughly 1 cm.

hackmum · 21/01/2013 20:27

Fingers are still used as a measurement of dilation, but I've never heard anyone use the term "six fingers dilated". That's all.

Sabriel · 21/01/2013 20:51

I've just read the book. Molly had 2 little boys who she neglected, and the new baby was a girl. The MW went round and the children were on their own with an unguarded paraffin heater so she got the grandma round and the police broke in. Then the husband came back and said he would look after the kids and there was nothing they could do :(

She was back on the game less than 2 weeks after giving birth Shock. Couldn't have been particularly pleasant for the punters, never mind Molly.

diddl · 21/01/2013 21:07

"i don't remember going to sleep with gas and air"

I did!

I remember waking up & husband saying how quiet I´d been!

BertieBotts · 21/01/2013 23:08

The books are true life stories, the series adds a bit of artistic licence, some more "rounded" endings etc.

diddl · 22/01/2013 07:41

So in reality, the Captain´s daughter gave birth & wasn´t seen again?

What happened to Molly?

Was she charged?

Did she go to prison?

I don´t like how they are changing it tbh-as if the "happy ending" makes up for all the bad!