Call The Midwife

[Daffodilly]

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

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

Sorry for the last two posts - wrong thread!

You were lucky, campion. No idea what happened to my Granny's.

[wetaugust]

Selks - my school hall built in 1963 had exactly those lights.

[Selks]

They'd be worth a packet now, Wetaugust.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Was great episode wasn't it? I missed the XMas special unfortunately.
Miranda is so good as Chummy.
And as a 60s/70s girl so much seemed familiar - those village halls, early memories of our district nurse/ health visitor doing her rounds on her old bicycle, and I'm sure I had a wooden play pen just like baby Chummy's one, with those wooden beads on the side - made me realise again that I was only born 20 years after the end of the war.
At the time (60s/70s) everyone wanted a fresh start I think, and not to look back ... a time of decimalisation and men going to the moon - all very modern and forward looking .... but so close to the war really.
20 years back now seems like nothing .... what 1994 ?

[Selks]

I know what you mean Juggling. 1994 doesn't seem so long ago.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

I realise I'm so old now I'm beginning to get a historical perspective on things (will be 50 next year) - my DD even told me they're learning about the 70s in her history lessons (50s-70s)

[NorthernLurker]

I diagnosed the CF very quickly too. Way before S MJ started going on about salty sweat. I thought the programme was rather dishonest about that storyline tbh. Though some treatment was available those boys would have had a very limited lifespan. CF today is a hopeful picture. That was not the case in the 1950s - though better than in the 30s. Antibiotics alone must have made a huge difference.

Loved the Chummy storyline though and the dystocia.

[AmandinePoulain]

I thought that too Northern. I wouldn't have thought they would have had access to nebulisers or prophylactic antibiotics, probably just limited antibiotics when they had chest infections and digestive enzymes. I also thought it was odd that the GP had never seen a case before, I just looked it up and the sweat test was first used in 1952 so there was an awareness of the condition at the time and it is one of (if not the) most common genetic disease amongst white Europeans.

[wetaugust]

I don't think this is set in the 1950s or, if it's supposed to be, they've got the props wrong.

Says on Wiki that yes, Tupperware was invented in 1948 BUT
Tupperware spread to Europe in 1960

According to Wiki about CF

In 1952 Paul di Sant' Agnese discovered abnormalities in sweat electrolytes; a sweat test was developed and improved over the next decade.

So if CTMW could state what it was it implies that the series is set towards the end of the decade that commenced in 1952 i.e. around 1960ish.

The original CTMW was definitely 1950s but these episodes follow on and I think they are set at the turn of the 1960s.

[Clawdy]

The new series is set in 1958, I think. But I'm sure the Christmas special played "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" in one scene,and that wasn't released in the UK till 1962.

[wetaugust]

Yep - I'm right.

'Nurse Jenny Lee arrives at Nonnatus House in 1957, at the age of 22, completely unaware of the world she is about to enter.'

Then Chummy arrives.
Chummy courts the Policeman
Chummy gets married and has a baby
Baby is what? 6 months old?

That should take you into the 1960s.

[wetaugust]

Well the BBC's timeline is wrong Clawdy. Or Chummy had the shortest pregnancy known to midwives.

Rockin' Robin would place it correctly in 1962.

Plus married women did not wear trousers out of the home as casual wear in those days. I don't think my mother (of that era) has ever worn trousers.

[girliefriend]

I love this programme so much

Think Chummy is brilliant and was hoping she would be able to go back to work, am guessing that was really unusual in that time. Wish they had said who was going to look after the baby though, I wondered if she would pay an unofficial cm or if a relative of her husbands.

When does Jenny get married? She seemed to touch her tummy a few times in tonights episode and I briefly thought she might have been pregnant!!

Am guessing at some point all the girls will get married and have babes of their own.....

Oh and also the nun who married the dr my prediction is she can't have children and they end up adopting a baby.

[girliefriend]

Oh and I also thought they were misleading about the prognosis for cf, even now the prognosis is not great

[Ellenora5]

I loved it, Chummy mentioned tupperware to the hubby when she told the hubby there was stewed pears or something for the baby to eat, my mother has a tupperware jug that is 41 years old and she uses it everyday , she use to be a avon lady in the early 70s and she always says anything she earned from avon was spent on tupperware

I thought they were going to go down the road of Chummy having pnd, she seemed so fed up, I have to admit I don't like her as a comedienne but I think she is fab in CTM

We all pretty much coped onto the cf but you are right there wouldn't have been much help in those days for it but it was progressing all the time

[Ellenora5]

Apologies for severe lack of punctuation in my post, and for using the word hubby twice in 6 words

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

Lovely

We have some of those candy striped sheets too.

[mrsjay]

Miranda hart is actually a bloody good actor isn't she.

yes she is i was shouting at her GO BACK TO WORK , and the cried when she delivered the baby aww sister MJ i wish they would listen to her i know she rambles but she is always right, I still have stripped sheets in my cupboards they came from my MIls so i wont throw them out

[mrsjay]

striped* not stripped

[TheNightIsDark]

I was hoping chummy would go back to work.

Late to the party, just watched it on catch up! I thought the CF storyline would've been a bit more realistic tbh.

I like Chummy's husband. He seems a good egg.

I wish the other midwife (the quiet mousey ish one) would get some big storylines though.

[GeorginaWorsley]

I started nursing in mid 1980s and life expectancy then for CF sufferers was late teens.
We have come a long way in past 30 years.
Agree with poster who commented hoe close 60s/70s were to the War.
I grew up with stories of The Blitz and rationing and evacuation etc etc.
That must explain why I read so much war time fiction now.

[mrsjay]

i had a friend who had cf she was a few years older than me she got a lung transplant in her late 20s I lost touch with her sadly but her life expentancy was late teens

[FamiliesShareGerms]

Even DH commented that those poor boys weren't going to have a very good life with a CF diagnosis in those days.

Where do they get the near-newborns to film?!

[mrsjay]

i think they ask at hospitals i remember one of the actresses mentioning it on something osme of the babies are anamatronic (sp) though