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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:
Clawdy · 10/02/2014 09:50

Don't think smoking has ever been linked to infertility,has it? can't see that one.

josephinebornapart · 10/02/2014 09:53

Oh and it is the 1950s- I was born then and the clothes the women wear when they are 'dressed up- are just like my mum wore in photos of me and her- women wore their best suits or dresses when walking babies in the prams- none of this jeans and converse nonsense!

josephinebornapart · 10/02/2014 09:53

Men who smoke have lower sperm count/ less active sperm.

MooncupGoddess · 10/02/2014 10:03

Smoking decreases fertility in both men and women - there is lots of research about it if you google. It's one of those things we know now but they didn't know then.

Clawdy · 10/02/2014 10:12

Ok,I stand corrected! didn't seem to have affected all those heavy smokers I used to know!

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 10/02/2014 10:15

I still feel that new nun (I'm so involved with her I can't even remember her name) needs a bit more character development. We saw lots of her last night and her 'problem' still had to be explained to us by Cynthia. Then she was put under pressure, delivered the baby and realised she quite liked delivering babies.

Ok, it could be because it was cut in with Alec's death, but I think it was the most boring 'overcoming her fears' storyline I've ever seen.

josephinebornapart · 10/02/2014 10:17

Fertility is on a spectrum and depends on the man and the woman, and on their baseline fertility as well as lifestyle factors. If 1 partner is highly fertile smoking might not affect the outcome much, but for others who are not so fertile smoking might tip them into infertility.

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 10/02/2014 10:31

Oh god yes, the nun was awful. Plus the whole thing about how she cured the holocaust woman of her upset with a slightly garbled, single word sentence. I know it was supposed to be about how they overcame the fear together and the baby bringing her closer to her daughter and giving her confidence but it was odd, and felt very rushed as a storyline.

rightsaidthread · 10/02/2014 10:43

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JugglingFromHereToThere · 10/02/2014 10:47

I guess they could move towards not having a main character, and possibly not having the voice over from older Jenny ... come to think of it I don't think I noticed that so much in the last episode, so perhaps they are developing it in that way?
We didn't see much of Miranda (Chummy) this week either did we?

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 10/02/2014 10:49

Just at the funeral I think.

AnneEyhtMeyer · 10/02/2014 13:03

Jessica Raine is outclassed by every other actress in the series, that's what makes it so obvious that she is acting and is so wooden. I can't imagine why she thinks she has a future in film, but then I suppose Keira Knightley manages with zero talent, so it is possible.

I really think they have to move away from Jenny and the voiceover if the series is to continue. Last night it was laughable when the old Jenny was saying how happy she was and how much she liked working in the East End and yet the young Jenny was simultaneously shown with her usual sour, bored expression riding her bike.

josephinebornapart · 10/02/2014 14:14

That's funny- I almost compared her to K Knightley in my original post about this.
They are both similar in many ways- doubt either will ever be a heavy weight - they just haven't got the depth of emotion or rather can't convey it.

josephinebornapart · 10/02/2014 14:17

I'm afraid I rate her as an above-average amateur actress- the sort who'd get the lead roles in the school plays. God knows how she got into RADA.

Seff · 10/02/2014 15:09

Hmmm, I think the character she plays is a bit wooden as well though. So I'm not sure if it's all the actress or partly the character too.

Like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix!

rightsaidthread · 10/02/2014 16:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

josephinebornapart · 10/02/2014 17:04

you could have someone saying the same lines but coming over very differently with their expressions and body language.

Lottiedoubtie · 10/02/2014 17:07

I think she's really talented, and I think her RADA training 'shows', which could either be a good or a bad thing.

I really like her portrayal of the character and I think she holds her own extremely well amongst a talented cast.

shouldnthavesaid · 10/02/2014 17:14

I don't like Jenny as a character at all - obviously in real life not sure what she was like at all, but she comes across as a complete snob. I far prefer Trixie and Cynthia - I went to school with the double of Cynthia, so can see that there are genuinely be people like her in real life.

Even Chummy, who you might think would be the snob of the series, doesn't come across as bad as Jenny does. Much of the time she just irritates me - the way she was with both Jimmy and Alec (where was Jimmy at the funeral?!), the way she speaks to patients, the way she blatantly judged that poor woman with syphillis.. Her only redeeming things have been occasionally apologising (which I suppose she did with that woman) and the one episode where she took that old chap to a soldiers reunion, that one did make me cry.

Problem is I know a Jenny in rl as well who's training to be a doctor - can't think of anyone worse suited... being able to fully empathise with patients who are all of a very similar demographic/social group, is quite a positive isn't it? I don't mean that in order to treat cancer you must have had it - but, in a situation where you'd be working largely with impoverished families it makes sense to be able to empathise and not therefore 'look down on'.. I'm probably waffling a bit..

So I don't think it's the actress who causes the problem (although the others are all 100% better, especially Pam Farris and the actress who plays Sr. MJ) , think it's the way she was written.. If anything Laura Main irritates me more thanks to her bloody voice! She was born and brought up only 1 mile if that from me and yet her voice is bizarre, whether it's a false one for the show, or something, it's just annoying!

Clawdy · 10/02/2014 17:23

I find Trixie's super-posh enunciation irritating. Hate the way she says "parfect" and "garls".....

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 10/02/2014 17:27

But the impoverished wouldn't have been able to train as doctors/midwives etc in the 1950s would they? So it's unlikely they'd get someone who had grown up in the area.

Clawdy · 10/02/2014 17:41

Maybe. But her accent sounds artificial and unnatural to me,she is trying too hard.

josephinebornapart · 10/02/2014 17:48

But how can you say you don't like Jenny as a character? If she is a good actress then she ought to be playing the part 'straight' according to the book/diary and the director will be leading her with that.

Unless Jenny in RL was stuck up, then there is no way that JRaine should play her like that- and no one is alive to say if she was stuck up or not.

I think what irritates me about her is that the whole point of the book/diary was to show how much she loved working as a midwife, but the portrayal by Raine makes her look bored, gloomy, patronising, bossy, yet rather naive and coy when it comes to men. I think this is the acting not the script.

As for RADA training- all actors train somewhere and RADA doesn't mean you come out as a certain 'type' of actor!

AnneEyhtMeyer · 10/02/2014 18:00

The character wasn't "buttoned up", though, she says that she was seeing a married man previously. That isn't the actions of a straight-laced person.

Jessica Raine also plays the same character in everything she is in, so that points to the problem being her, rather than the writing / character.

shouldnthavesaid · 10/02/2014 18:03

I wonder if that was a problem at the time then - it seems to be portrayed that way in the programme.. I imagine, it just being after the start of the nhs, that it would have been odd to treat every patient and not treating poorer patients out of charity, etc. Wonder if it was difficult to suddenly have to work with people from all backgrounds - good, bad, immigrant, prisoner, businessman - and try to treat them all the same. Must have been a bit difficult if you'd never encountered such situations or persons before but then I would hope one would be able to hide their shock and revulsion as Jenny didn't..

I'm interested now as I've done a bit of family history research and find the 'illnesses' side of it fascinating, especially in terms of what could be done differently now. I'm now at a loss as to explaining how these people funded medical care that in several cases they very definitely had.. Maybe they were helped by the church but seems unlikely. One stayed in hospital for most of her adult life - how did they afford that?