Is there a Call the Midwife thread?

[Oodbrain]

The poor little boy

I'm getting really fed up of the way that all the working-class characters are just there to illustrate whatever point they want to make that week. They all seem to be badly scripted and badly acted. Usually they are shown as a bit ignorant and a bit thick, without any real personality. It can't have been easy being a working-class mum in late 50s/early 60s Poplar, but in real life plenty of people responded to those conditions with resilience and humour. You don't get any sense of people having their own life, their own culture, beyond their interactions with the midwives.

Meanwhile, all the immigrant characters are shown in a kind of benign soft glow of pity: they're all admirable (none is ever nasty in the way some of the white characters are), but they don't have any personality to speak of either.

Cynthia was very meh, but then she was quite meh before she went off to nun school too

Anyone else diagnosis the osteogenesis imperfecta as soon as the babies first broken bone was confirmed?

Conchita in Series 1 was brilliant. Agreed the later immigrant characters have all been insipid. I suppose it would be difficult to show anyone being actually bad because of the implications it would say about that culture (not that they really seem to mind for other drama series.)

I thought they were supposed to be doing stories based on real life experiences still, so it would make sense for there to be a bit of a mix, but it seems like they're just making it up.

hackmum I don't suppose there's a lot of time to show the 'cultural' background of all the characters. But the old bloke (sorry can't remember his name) who is the odd job man for the nuns is rounded character (i liked him and the shop lady yesterday).

Yes I noticed the way the holy roller family were not supposed to give the baby medics. and that was ignored by the removal of the baby due to the broken bones, surely it was just as cruel to refuse a baby painkillers?

Looks like that's definitely it for Trixie and the Curate

Poor Trixie. They've obviously decided to give her character more depth this series. I think I preferred her when she was all fizzy and fun.
Why is she being so cold to Cynthia?

I wondered that.

I suppose it's because the days of girly chat after hours are over for Cynthia, and it just occurred to both of them?

I thought it was more that she is feeling awkward because she's not sure what is appropriate or how to act towards her. You could see that she wanted to hug her when she first saw she was back and spill out all of her relationship troubles to her old friend, but held back because she suddenly realised, no, that's probably not appropriate any more.

It must be a bit of a weird situation - I can't think of a parallel really. Possibly like when you're a teenager, and your opposite sex friend gets a girlfriend, and you suddenly don't know whether you're allowed to hug him or have cosy chats any more. And nobody asks outright because it's the 1950s and it's not the done thing. I think they'll string it out for a few episodes and then they'll have a heart to heart where she says "I'm still the same person, you know".

I think Trixie is trying to be respectful and Cynthia is feeling a bit out of place, but neither of them feel able to say anything yet.

I think it is a pretty good representation of the early 60s.
We can't apply current standards/opinions.

DH and I both chorused "osteogenesis imperfecta" as soon as the second fracture appeared. But it is so rare it would have been the last thing anyone thought of back then. I was health visiting in the mid 70s and I remember a very similar case where a baby was removed and fostered while a NAI case conference was held. I was definitely not the first diagnosis anyone thought of - particularly in the aftermath of the Maria Colwell report. We all had to read that report as a compulsory part of our training and NAI was high on everybody's radar. I think things changed a lot through the 80s and 90s.

I remember being involved and setting up immunisation programmes and TB contact tracing services for immigrant communities too. We had a mobile chest Xray van. I had forgotten so much of this!

Where was Ameera from? They said Serletti (sp?) but Google can't can't find it although I'm undoubtedly spelling it wrong!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylheti_language

I googled it too. It is a dialect from an area of Bangladesh. You learn something new everyday!

I thought it was brittle bone disease but assumed that in 1960 it hadn't been heard of (so wrong there). I did work out that as soon as the baby was given to the foster mother, it would break another bone and they'd realise what it was - the stories do follow a predictable narrative arc in that respect.

I couldn't work out why the whole Christian science/painkiller thing was relevant, as it was dropped quite quickly.

Bangladesh fits. There were a lot of Bangladeshi immigrants at that time in the East End.

I was lucky enough to spend a few weeks working in Bangladesh last year and I recognised one or two words when the adorable little boy was interpreting for his mum . The East End, and particularly Tower Hamlets, still has a large Bangladeshi population, with many of them from the Sylhet area. Fascinating borough, actually.

I think Bertie has it absolutely right about Trixie and Sister Mary Cynthia. Awkwardness preventing their natural friendship from resuming. I like deeper Trixie but preferred her hair really short (shallow...)

Trixie's hair reminds me of Mildred from George and Mildred at the mo

I think we take shallowness to a whole new depth :)

I need shallowness to balance out the sheer trauma of Patrick's breakdown last night! I am still recovering.

He was a man tortured ....and his hair was magnificengtly rumpled.

Don't start me off He just needed someone to run their hands through it. And as Shelagh was busy at the surgery I'd like to volunteer my services...

Your willingness to help is admirable, Shelagh.

It's a sacrifice but I feel it's my calling

Just watching it.

Mmmmm samosas!

Is Trixie wearing a wig in this series? It was the first time I'd really taken notice last night now it's a bit longer. It seemed so natural when it was shorter so I hadn't registered.

First time I didn't cry watching CTM although was curled up watching Doc T perform the Traceotomy (sp) hardly daring to watch through my fingers and was so relieved when she took a breath. Thought her son was absolutely adorable

The woman who translates for Ameera, what has she been in?

Can't find her in the cast.

Been following the thread but not posted before.

Just jumping in to say, the woman who was translating for Ameera was a nurse in Casualty. I think she was called Anna.