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Call The Midwife

640 replies

Daffodilly · 15/01/2014 21:47

I'm sure after the Christmas special they said a new series would be starting in the New Year. So where is it?? [impatient]

OP posts:
hackmum · 09/02/2014 21:20

Well, that was like being punched in the abdomen. Bloody hell.

DD's comment was: "I'm really upset. He was so hot!"

SweetestThing · 09/02/2014 21:28

Sorry for those of you reliving your losses. That must have been tough to watch.

Ave Verum Corpus is such a hauntingly beautiful piece of music.

HumphreyCobbler · 09/02/2014 21:31

Am also now worried about the emphasis on the doctor's smoking habit

JugglingFromHereToThere · 09/02/2014 21:35

The Jewish lady's goodbye to the midwives was so sad - and brilliantly done. Some very fine acting and story-telling again tonight - this series is so good. Was too sad for me though when Alec died Sad

FCEK · 09/02/2014 22:09

I really like shelagh. I feel her pain and tonight when she was trying to join the choir really struck me as you can see she struggles to fit in and often feels uncomfortable.

I can't stand jenny usually but well acted tonight.

That old nun whose name escapes me is just lovely.

pumpkinsweetie · 09/02/2014 22:35

truly brilliant episode tonight, the acting was done very well.

nikkihollis · 09/02/2014 22:46

Just seen it on iplayer. Whoah, that was hard to watch on so many levels! And sorry for all of you who it would have touched a raw nerve with :(

I thought the worst was over for Jenny when Alec lost his foot. Thought that would enable her to put things in perspective re the fallout over the Brighton trip. But then he goes and dies! Just way way too sad. And the fertility story was so heart rending. And how the nun who struggled with the medical side of her duties, was enabled, through attending at the Jewish woman's labour, to see the power of new life and of helping it into the world. And Mrs. Ruben's comment about grief was so profound. Really well written.

It is THE only series in years and years that makes me cry every flipping week!

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 09/02/2014 23:05

Oh, I think the doctor smoking thing is just emphasised because it's so absurd to our generation.

It was really sad this week :( I thought some of the scenes nearer the start of the episode were a bit contrived but it made up for it at the end in a sad way!

MooncupGoddess · 09/02/2014 23:08

I wondered if they were suggesting that the smoking might be contributing to their infertility.

Have to say Call the Midwife tugs on the heartstrings very effectively... I know I'm being manipulated but it gets me every time!

AnneEyhtMeyer · 09/02/2014 23:47

Very sad this week, but I have to say I am looking forward to Jenny going away for a bit.

cargotrousers · 10/02/2014 00:01

Well I have sobbed like a baby. Again. Is Jessica Raine leaving, or will she come back!

Pixel · 10/02/2014 00:19

Was ok until 'Jenny Kissed Me' then I got something in my eye.

Agree about singing mothers being rather contrived but we'll let them off Smile.
My sister's MIL (not sure what that makes her to me) has Meniere's disease, I don't think there is a proper cure even now. I know it makes her reluctant to go out alone (sis runs her around a lot) and she did have a fall a while ago. After being in pain and fobbed off by doctors for weeks it turned out she had a broken pelvis!

Elderberri · 10/02/2014 00:40

Wow, I thought I was wired for not liking Jenny, she does not seem human at times. Stepford midwife.

Ellenora5 · 10/02/2014 00:42

Oh Sad I thought that was one of the better episodes, I was ok until the jewish mama said that about living until you feel alive, very poignant, and then the poem, that just did me in, I had a right old cry after it was over.

The acting is superb really, you couldn't fault it.

I think Shelagh is just feeling awkward all the time, I don't think she is as happy as she thought she was going to be.

Massive hugs to all who have endured a loss, that can't have been easy viewing

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 10/02/2014 00:55

It was the "I didn't get to say goodbye" that got me. Recent family bereavement, so I was feeling a bit fragile anyway, and then that line is how I feel, so hard to watch.

Next weeks looks like it will be good, and a bit of a different storyline to normal. Is the man behind the desk the one we met last series? Jacob maybe?

OhBabyLilyMunster · 10/02/2014 07:46

Shelagh MUST have a miracle. I demand it.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 10/02/2014 07:56

Perhaps Shelagh and the Dr will adopt a baby like it seemed they were so close to doing recently? That would be lovely I think

Lizzabadger · 10/02/2014 07:59

According to something I read Jessica Raine sees her future in film. I reckon she may have left for good, bar the odd guest appearance. I don't know what they are going to do about the narrator (mature Jenny) while she's not in it.

JakeBullet · 10/02/2014 08:50

Jennifer Worth left midwifery eventually didn't she? She was involved with the Royal College of Music in some way.

I did wonder what would happen with Alec as Jenny Lee eventually married a man named Phillip Worth. I just wondered if they were going to veer away from the real Jenny Lee to fiction at that point. Clearly not given the death of Alec.

josephinebornapart · 10/02/2014 09:16

Is it just me or is anyone else glad to see the back of Jessica Raine? I don't think she can act for toffee and despite being the main character, i think she was always mis-cast. She doesn't appear to have any depth or range of emotion- maybe down to her age ( or ability?)

I know that Trixie and the others are 'larger than life' and she's the 'grounded' one, but she has on sparkle camera, for me anyway- and always looks as if she is 'acting'.

SweetestThing · 10/02/2014 09:22

I think it's her voice that stops me warming to her (Jenny). It feels a bit light and too much rising inflection that would have been far less common in the 50s/60s compared to its seemingly ubiquitous presence nowadays! It does feel a bit like "acting lite" when she is on screen, although I thought her breaking down when Mrs Reuben spoke to her was very naturally done.

LaurieFairyCake · 10/02/2014 09:23

I think the actress is great though she's often not playing someone entirely sympathetic - she's been judgemental/horrified by poverty/uptight and proper/bossy when she got promoted (a little).

Last night made me sob, even dh got misty and said he'd made a contract with god that he had to die first and there was no way he was going to be alone and old.

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 10/02/2014 09:26

I quite like her, not sure why all the mumsnet hate Grin

josephinebornapart · 10/02/2014 09:37

I didn't know there was a MN thing about her- this is the first time I've read this thread, or posted!

Considering her real age -32- she comes over as being much younger on set- and quite 'little girly'- more like a 16 year old in her behaviour with men for example.

I hate her voice too but I also think she gave off the appearance of being bored with the whole thing- she seemed 'flat' and was just uninspiring as an actress in the lead role. Maybe it is a combination of having such strong characters around her- Trixie, Chummy, nuns etc, Shelagh, that make her seem insipid- but I still think it's her acting ability. She was turned down by every drama school initially, and although she has been to RADA now, she hasn't done much TV work- mainly stage.

hackmum · 10/02/2014 09:47

LOL at Elderberri's "Stepford midwife."

I don't much like Jessica Raine, though she seems to be in everything at the moment. I find it slightly odd that the first two series were based on her real life and then they introduced a tragic development that presumably never happened to her.

Am sure Sheila and the doc will either adopt a baby or miraculously conceive against the odds.

In fact, I find CTM as a whole rather clunky, with plot developments generally signalled well in advance, and far too much sugar-coating of the harsher aspects of life at the time. I particularly dislike the entirely meaningless platitudes from Vanessa Redgrave at the end of each episode. I think I keep on watching it because there is something so compelling about the births themselves.