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 it will be Shelia."

And him a widower again?

Sheep prolapes cheers for sharing that

Could've been worse, could've been photos of an actual (human) uterine inversion

Maybe diddl, or maybe she'll miraculously pull through. How long till transplants reach CTM?!

Perhaps the Turners should have their own spin-off show, then we can have more Sister Monica Joan pearls of wisdom.

Yes please! The Turners get very little coverage except for about 2 episodes a series where they feature a bit more. A spin off where I didn't have to see Sr MJ, Sr Winifred, insipid Tom and Dopey Delia would be wonderful! Just let me have the Turners and Nurse Crane and I'm set!

Yes, let's ship the Turners off somewhere where they can practice their rictus grins at each other!

Sorry Shelagh (and also thanks for reminding me I spelt her name wrong earlier ) you can't have Nurse Crane. I'm counting her in nuns and MWs Are you sure we can't persuade you to take Tom? They can all move to a little village by the sea (or is that Doc Martin I'm thinking of?)

Noooo I don't want Tom! I'm insisting on Phyllis. You can't have her and Sr Evangelina, that's not fair!

Nope I'm ruling with allmyfriends

Nurse Crane is counted in the nuns lot

I've got a feeling the Delia storyline is going to really piss me off. It'll be revealed and they'll all, nuns included, be super accepting and jolly about it, which, no matter how nice they are WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED in a convent in 1962 or whenever.

OhShutUp - agree totally. It wouldn't even happen in a convent in 2016.

The Turners are dire. They started out so promising, but they are just awful now.

I really don't like Sister MJ, so much so I have been known to fast forward her scenes.

Young nun will be disapproving of the relationship. Sister MJ won't give a shit, and will come out with a lovely poetic line to explain how she doesn't give a shit. Sister Evangelina will hoik her bosom and say there was none of this nonsense in her day.

But you're probably right it will all end up very amicable.

I'm very glad Sister Evangelina is back next week though.

Really, in 1962, she'd be thrown out of the convent, disowned and would have to leave her job as no woman would be treated by her.

But I suspect they'll rewrite history and they'll all just have a tea party or something.

Not sure, they weren't so accepting of the gay man last series. Sr Julienne was decidedly unimpressed

I actually like how they're writing Sister Julienne as less perfect in the last couple of series. There's definitely a theme to her being a bit judgy about sex, which seems more realistic to me than the earlier miraculously 21st-century broad-mindedness!

But yes, I can't quite see it being a happy ending for Patsy and Delia. I found it extremely unlikely they'd have kissed in the phone box with people outside, too - really?! I know women who still wouldn't do that. Also have a friend who's a nurse and reckons it is still a hard environment to be out in.

I agree the actress playing Sister Mary C was brilliant. I'm really glad they're doing more with her character and showing the relationship with Sister Monica Joan.

The Turners ... meh. He just can't act, can he?

I think it'll only be Trixie who'll twig, when Patsy comes back to the room looking postively blissed out after an extra lengthy whist session in Delia's room. She'll be non-judgemental and keep it under her hat, being a woman of the world, and the nuns will not have a clue.
We might get the odd shot of Nurse Crane raising a quizzical eyebrow and trying to remember the Spanish word for lesbian.

Nurse Crane is my absolute favourite! Love her!

I love the phrase 'an extra lengthy whist session'.

I wonder if Trixie would actually be unshocked? How well known was it?

I reckon the nuns would have more of a clue, because I think back then they used to be warned off 'particular friendships'. There's a novel, published in 1969 and set in the 50s in a (Catholic) monastery, which has a subplot involving one nun getting a crush on another. It's definitely not treated as acceptable, but nor is it treated as unheard-of.

I'm fairly sure Trixie already knows. Trixie told Patsy about when she was a beard for a gay doctor during the episode with the gay husband, and she gave Patsy a few significant looks.

I think it's quite possible for Delia and Patsy to have a happy ending. They could simply set up in a flat and pretend they are flat sharers, which I think was roughly their original plan. I can remember teachers who were known to be very friendly and who lived together - at the time no-one thought anything of it, but with hindsight and maturity I'm sure they were gay.

Oh, maybe ... I've forgotten that episode. Fair enough!

I love Nurse Crane's Spanish night classes

I think they'll have to give them a happy ending. I remember quite a few complaints on Points of View when Delia was run over. People were saying that lesbian couples on tv dramas never seem to be able to live happily together, they always seem to be hit by catastrophe which breaks up their relationship. So hopefully they took note.

Would Shelagh get cancer tho? I know they've been hammering it home about her having the odd fag, but presumably she's not smoked for long - she didn't smoke when she was a nun did she?