Is there a Call the Midwife thread?

[Oodbrain]

The poor little boy

Did they find out if the deaf lady's baby could hear or did they not do newborn hearing tests then?

I thought Delia's mum was going to say to Patsy
"And who the cocking hell are you??"
This series hasn't been a patch on the previous ones and I am really sad about it.
It was not to be missed television but not any more

Not the best episode last night, although I found Patsy's story much more moving than Jennifer losing her boyfriend last series. But I wonder is that it now? Delia has been carted off to Wales by her parents and will never get her memory back? Surely that would just be temporary and she'd come back to London and the flat after a long recovery period. It looked as if Patsy had just given up all hope last night.

Trixie has got to be the most unconvincing alcoholic I've ever seen on television. Apart from one incident where she passed out, all we saw was her having the occasional Campari or whiskey after a rough day. She was never drunk on the job, too hungover to show up, hiding her drinking or anything like that. And the scene at the end where she was pouring out her heart just didn't ring true.

Is the older midwife/nurse a lesbian too? She seemed to quietly know what Patsy was going through and offered to take her to the hospital in her car. I think there will be a lot more to come from Patsys storyline, maybe she will resign herself to getting married and having a family having lost her true love.

I think Trixie is a "functional alcoholic"

^Many people think of alcoholics as disheveled, homeless winos who have lost everything, but there are people who meet the criteria for a medical diagnosis for alcohol dependence who are highly functional in society and still have their jobs, homes and families. This type of drinker is known as a functional alcoholic.
They rarely miss work and other obligations because of their drinking, although it does happen occasionally, and they usually excel at their jobs and careers. Typically, they are clever and witty individuals who are successful in many areas of their lives. To all but those who are closest to them, they give the outward appearance of being perfectly normal.^

I think the older midwife is just very perceptive.

My father was a functional alcoholic for many, many years. He drank waaaaay more than we ever see her drink - think half a bottle of whiskey before midday.

My DS cheered when it said it was the last one of the series!

That's the thing really. As viewers we are privy to things that the other characters don't know eg Patsy's relationship with Delia, Sr Julianne's first love who died in an earlier episode. But we never saw any real evidence of heavy drinking by Trixie, so it just didn't convince when she was suddenly at an AA meeting.

Oh and I agree that taking the phone off Trixie was wrong. She should have let her finish whatever she needed to say to the 'samaritan', and hear what she needed to hear. And then taken over.

OK, I have lurked on here all series, and I apologise enormously in advance to ShelaghTurner, but I want to see Dr Turner and Shelagh and the annoying boy buried in a large hole and never seen again. They are unbearable characters, especially Shelagh, smug beyond belief, and I cheered when the doctor burnt his mouth last night. As DH said, our toddler knows that food will be HOT after it leaves the oven, and if he'd shown the slightest manners and waited for his wife to at least help herself before starting his meal, then it wouldn't have been molten.

Right, I can breathe now. And if it helps at all, I could also happily throttle Chummy.

AND Cynthia taking the phone off Trixie was outrageous as a concept. I get what they were saying about their friendship, but I hope no one watching ever thinks it's a good idea to do that to someone.

Everything is just a bit too clean and smart now. Where are the grimy dusty streets and dishevelled mothers to be?

There is always the possibility that the amnesia will be temporary and she will return.

However if you'd spare me and my delicious husband from the hole for just a bit Id help you murder Chummy, provide an alibi and stand your bail. If ever someone needed throttling it was her!

That was probably the worst episode ever. Perhaps I don't actually want the main characters to have personal lives that I have to know about? I think I preferred it when the action was centred around whatever was happening with the patients/mothers/babies that week - that was the beauty of Jennifer Worth's books and it has strayed so far from that template now, it's just another melodramatic soap.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was at Simpering Cynthia taking the phone away from Trixie!

But I love the Turners. The whole family is just ghastly. The grinning is priceless.

I'm finding Shelagh very irritating this series (sorry MumsnetShelagh).

She's coming across as very twee and the kind of nurse/receptionist you would dread getting on the phone with all that 'doctor's very busy. Come in next week if you're still feeling poorly....' stuff. And at home they're like one of those old fashioned advertisements for Stork or Bovril or something.

Re everything looking much cleaner, that's probably quite realistic as by 1960 a lot of people would have been moved from tenements into council houses and high rise flats.

I'd give the Turners a reprieve and help dig a bally deep hole for Chummy!

I'm sorry they went down the alcoholic route with Cynthia, somehow. Though it all adds up I suppose, and the detail of the family history. Yes agree, we're usually privy to more detail about the characters secrets, and I felt like we were reading between the lines a little here.

Until next series then!

Are we all on the Poldark thread now? I am yet to watch the first episode.

I actually thought this one was really good. It was obvious that Patsy's girlfriend was going to have an accident, but I am really glad they didn't kill her and I hope she'll come back. I actually liked them not making the storyline about thalidomide complete - for me, that made it more realistic, because all you get is the wonderful 'success' of it, and that reminds you how it must have felt. Because I noticed that a lot of people still imagine hyperemesis is a really tiny thing, and are very judgy about it all. But you can really see how she would have felt it was a miracle drug.

I do find Trixie a convincing alcoholic. She looks awful -white and thin - so you can see she isn't well. Plenty of alcholics wouldn't miss work (though, in fact, she has - earlier we saw her sleep through an entire night when she was meant to be on call). I think also, she is more conscious of it than other people might be, because she saw her dad's experience so is more alert to it. I did find her long speech at AA quite dramatic and self-conscious, but I think that's her character and her coping mechanism, to sort of play the romantic heroine to herself.

I'm liking how they've developed the older nurse (name's gone out of my head - the new one!) from a tactless caricature to more of a personality.

I thought the alcoholic storyline has been really well done and the actress did a great job last night.

What we've actually seen of her all throughout is how much she craves the alcohol, every day - after every shift.

It's the crave that makes you an alcoholic, she is obsessed with getting home to her bar at the end of the day.

I don't like the character of Trixie at all - she's a good time girl who I find really irritating but last night the actress was allowed to do a lot more with the character.

I am really surprised there's been no hot lesbian action - I thought there'd be at least a kiss, or some sort of hint that their relationship was sexual - it's not like the bbc to miss that out. Why have they been coy about it all?

My favourite character is now Nurse Crane or head Nunny. Theyre both great - I hate seeing how old Jenny Agattur is though, it makes me feel ancient.

I absolutely love Call the Midwife though I'm really conflicted over the rosey view of the past - I too remember the past being much more about neighbours and community - and how fab the nhs used to be. All of the things I wasn't really aware of as a child (like the sexism/marital rape) were part of the adult experience - like the children in the streets I had a lot more freedom.

I know the past wasn't better but it still feels like it was - that probably doesn't make sense

Gosh I usually crave a glass of wine in the evenings. Don't always have it, but definitely would like one. Didn't realise that made me an alcoholic.

I love Jenny Aguttar in it, but felt that apart from one episode, she was very much in the background this series. I think there's two many main characters now and it's becoming too soap opera-ish. I think they need a cull next year.

Bit more than crave, it's the obsession with having to have it and getting home to have it that makes her an alcoholic. Obsession is the thing.

I too get close to craving it, there are loads of members of my family who are alcoholics. I constantly have to watch it.

Gosh I usually crave a glass of wine in the evenings. Don't always have it, but definitely would like one.

Same here!

My father was a functional alcoholic and I know what Laurie means. At any event that didn't involve alcohol, he would start getting agitated about when he would be able to have a drink. He went to work and more or less looked after himself, but booze was a priority, over and above most other things.

I'm very close to a functioning alcoholic. It does start to affect their work, and especially over time, in my experience. We didn't see much of that with Trixie in my opinion. A couple of minor, understandable, low level incidents is all we saw (coupled with the social drinking), one being after the breakdown of her relationship.

Another predictably poor episode again in my opinion, surely someone can find some more real life memoirs to use, rather than inventing these stories which are so obviously written through a 21C lens.

And I am still so cross about the obvious make up on the nun's, whereas they started out so fresh. Or is it just because I have a new telly this series?!