Call the Midwife is back!

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

This Sunday (17th) at 8pm on BBC1.

I enjoyed the Christmas special - it was good to see Delia back, and I think there's going to be a nice romance with Tom and Barbara

The - it looks like we are going to get a thalidomide story.

I think the link was established in Australia. Will Google later.

"Really feel for the young man being forced to work at the factory."

Oh dear.

Looks as if that is being sorted out.

Oh god, he's dead

"The drug was only taken off the market after the German Widukind Lenz and the Australian William McBride independently suggested the link."

Oh goodness he tried to kill himself!

Wasn't the doctor diagnosed with lung cancer ? This story line seems to have been coveniently dropped.

How was the thalidomide link with limb/developmental abnormalities established?

Obviously Dr Turner discovered it!

And that's why I love Trixie!

I was thinking oh come on that's stretching it if he finds the "link" !!

Such a sad episode this week.

I can't believe doctors and nurses actually left babies to die like that

The poor mothers

Another brilliant episode. One of the best British TV programmes.

I wish I'd seen all the other series, this is the first one I've watched!

Oh Behooven you have to watch all the others, they are all so good!

Yes, i really want to. Brilliant drama.

what actually happened with the baby i missed it. i saw they left her by the window

No arms, legs or genitalia - basically just a head and torso, poor wee thing was left on the window to die.

I think the doctor was trying to establish if the babies' deformities were due to any errors he had made although I think his frantic search of the Lancet was to ascertain any hint or cause elsewhere in the UK.
Google says that over 10,000 babies in 46 nations were affected and whilst the drug regulations were tightened in 1961, Thalidomide is still used (permission in 1998) for ENL, a complication of leprosy.

Outstanding acting by Jenny Agutter tonight.

That was heartbreaking. No hints either - it was really shocking :(

I thought the scene where she was blessing the baby before it died was extremely poingnant.

The Lancet thing I think was to see if this was a nationwide thing or not - because his wife said that they have to assume it's a local problem. I suppose it makes sense that they would wonder about radiation.

Such a sad episode and brilliantly done. I really think this series has been excellent so far and I was worried it wouldn't be.

another grueling episode- is it just me or are they more upsetting this series?

I think it's the thalidomide story which is particularly upsetting. There have been one or two this season which weren't as strong but it's hard hitting and running through several of them.

I wondered if some of the stories were those of other midwives and nurses from the time now.

My MIL was teaching at a very well known private school in London in 1969 and had to leave as soon as it showed she was expecting DH. It was barely tolerated that she was married, and wasn't allowed to wear her wedding ring.

Goodness, I was at an independent girls' school in the 1960s and I remember two of the teachers being pregnant - they were respectably married, though. In the case of one of them we worked it out because she suddenly disappeared when we had a German measles outbreak.

Loved that bit of Helen Shapiro at the end. Fitted in so well with the Trixie storyline.

Sorry for being a big thickie, but why have both the thalidomide baby biths been difficult labours?