Page 27 | Call the midwife- brand new series starts tonight!!

Excited101 · 20/02/2017 22:23

I want to know what secret there is with the new midwife... She kicked up quite a fuss about sharing a room, it definitely seemed like it was sowing a seed for later.

No hint to Trixie's illness last night, maybe it was a broken heart and now she's cured?!

Akire · 20/02/2017 22:31

New nurse seems by far to cherpy and that's saying something with them all way they are. Yes something ages hiding too. If she's a nurse why is she just not going to births just for first few days?

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 20/02/2017 23:40

Not as much nice music at the moment! I liked the little 'party' with them getting to know Val

S1lentAllTheseYears · 20/02/2017 23:41

I do want Patsy to come home, they've given her bed away

Maybe she'll get to share with Delia when she comes back...

The whole new girl, Trixie, snoring, wardrobe thing was a bit of a damp squib. Thought they'd hate each other for a while then get sent out to a 'tricky case' have to put aside their differences and each discover the other was alright after all!

DesolateWaist · 20/02/2017 23:52

I want to know what secret there is with the new midwife... She kicked up quite a fuss about sharing a room, it definitely seemed like it was sowing a seed for later.

I agree. She was all spoiling for a fight and then nothing.
Also, can someone go from being a forces nurse to being a midwife with no more training that a new hat?

NorthernSnow · 21/02/2017 00:19

Saw the trailer for next week, anyone else think FGM is not a subject for call the midwife?

It's one thing having serious storylines about things that have since improved (such as provisions for downs sydrome or phalidomide) but I think they're going a bit too far with this one.

PageStillNotFound404 · 21/02/2017 00:30

NorthernSnow I'm interested to see how they tackle that storyline. I actually think it's admirable that a mainstream show isn't shying away from such a sensitive and still-relevant subject, and as I imagine they'll cover it sympathetically, I think it can only be a good thing to raise awareness further. My only reservation is whether they can play out the storyline without imposing 21st century values on the characters. They're normally reasonably good at portraying the social values of the time though, so hopefully this will be the same.

AML84 · 21/02/2017 04:26

Just caught up on iPlayer - but did I miss something - where did the evil nun go? Sister Ursula?

Also, thought the new nurse would get more of a storyline on her first day.

And god, Shelagh and Dr T are SO annoyingly bloody saccharine! aagghh

Bring back Chummy!!!

Crunchyside · 21/02/2017 07:24

PageStillNotFound404 I am not sure how well the attitudes of the main characters reflect the 'values' of the time... I wasn't around in the 60s so can't base this on experience but I found their views on things like mental health more modern than I'd expect? On the other hand the taboo of same sex relationships and the nuns' attitudes towards contraception seemed more realistic. So yeah, I'm not sure.

Alfieisnoisy · 21/02/2017 08:20

The actor with Down Syndrome was very good. The attitudes of the time were done very well. Who was the actress playing his Mum, very familiar face?

PatricianOfAnkhMorpork · 21/02/2017 08:51

Kate Williams played Ivy Jackson. Been in loads of stuff over the years and a fine old school actress. Daniel Laurie is the young man who played Reggie. I hope he has a long career ahead of him.

ppeatfruit · 21/02/2017 09:49

Yes Daniel was very good, made me cry a couple of times.

I watched the first one of the whole series on Netflix last night, I'd forgotten that the spanish mum with 24 children was in that one.

TreeTop7 · 21/02/2017 09:59

The Spanish mother was the story in the books that stuck with me, along with the workhouse alumni incest one. I often think of the RL Conchita's 18(?) kids, who'd mostly be elderly now. It would be great if one of them could do an interview.

According to the books, she was 14/15 during the civil war when she married her Brit husband so there's an outside chance that she's still alive I suppose.

ppeatfruit · 21/02/2017 10:25

Yes she could be, but she must've been worn out by everything before she was very old!

BeyondUnderthinking · 21/02/2017 11:24

I actually sobbed when the son put his head on his mums pillow!! With noise!!

Luckily I didn't wake DH up, he already calls it "cry the midwife" for some unknown reason...

PageStillNotFound404 · 21/02/2017 11:31

Beyond it was when he untucked his little pot plant from his bed that set me off.

BertieBotts · 21/02/2017 12:53

The dentistry story was well timed for me. I couldn't watch! I was talking with my mum recently about dentists because she's been nervous all her life after an awful experience with a dentist as a child in the 60s who really could have been described as a butcher :( I think it's totally understandable there was a lot of fear back then. They didn't have local anaesthetic so it was general or nothing, they only did general for tooth pulling and often pulled more than were necessary. DM has found a nice gentle dentist recently and been able to get some work done that she's been needing for years but it's really awful the way that some of them were.

FGM would have been hugely relevant for midwives in that area at that time because there was a large surge in immigration from African countries post war. It wouldn't have been something they were familiar with but it causes dreadful complications with childbirth. I think that will be quite harrowing if they don't shy away from it.

I did laugh out loud at the ludicrousness of the birth scene with Trixie and the dentist! Surely he would never have been allowed in, he wasn't a doctor! And I doubt if Trixie would have been allowed to attend either. I'm sure she would have been bustled in with a "We'll take it from here!" and the mother would have had an awful panicky time but then they'd do the happy ending with the dentures and "I'll make sure he looks after his teeth!" at the postnatal checkup. As it was I half expected her to name him after the dentist Come to mention it, why was she spending so much time with her on the clock? I wouldn't have thought she'd have the time to spare. If it was in her free time, I wonder why she was in uniform.

ppeatfruit · 21/02/2017 13:05

Yes I remember how frightened my dsis was of dentists after a terrible experience as a small child fgs! Dentists are much more sensitive nowadays.

When I was 5yrs old I had some milk teeth taken out under a General Anathesthetic that bit was alright , they just forgot to tell me that I'd have a mouthful of blood afterwards. Like the mother in CTM but she certainly would've needed a bucket or bowl for the blood in her mouth!!! Which for some reason they didn't give her. [hmm}

Thinkingblonde · 21/02/2017 13:32

My mother needed a tooth extracted in the days before the nhs. She was seventeen and couldn't afford the shilling for the gas. She said her arms were strapped down and the dentist was kneeling on her stomach as he pulled and tugged at the toot.
My uncle took her but he had to leave the waiting room because the screams coming from the surgery were terrible.
A shilling is the equivalent of 10p

BertieBotts · 21/02/2017 13:49

That's horrendous. I am nervous of the dentist now but when you hear about how it was in the past it doesn't seem quite so bad! I think I inherited some of my fear because my mum has always been nervous around dentists even though she tried hard not to pass it on.

DesolateWaist · 21/02/2017 13:53

A shilling is the equivalent of 10p

No it isn't really.

When the money changed the 2 shilling coin could be used as a 10p and the 1 shilling coin could be used as a 5p.

Anyway a shilling in 1960 represented a much higher percentage of an average wage than 10p does today.

ppeatfruit · 21/02/2017 13:54

A shilling then though was worth a lot more than 10p is now. In 1962 we spent 17 shillings on our greengrocery bill for a family of 5 for a week. There were 20 shillings in the pound!

BertieBotts · 21/02/2017 14:25

This is a useful calculator.

www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/

Thinking you didn't say what year this was but 1 shilling in 1960 would be somewhere between £1 and £4 today.

Ppeat's groceries would be somewhere from £20 to £50! Still very cheap by modern standards.

Unfortunately it only compares up to 2015 but it's recent enough it's still relevant.

Clawdy · 21/02/2017 14:26

In those days, dentists and doctors were brusque and curt with children, unless you were very lucky. I can still remember sitting in the doctors room in a chair, with a nasty infected scab on my finger, when I was about six. He removed the scab in seconds with a wet piece of cotton wool, and as I looked at the raw shiny red skin underneath, I started to retch. He bellowed " Get her to the sink now!" at my mum, who rushed me to the sink in a corner of his room , where I was violently sick! We left with Mum apologising profusely, while he sat looking furious. He was a very dedicated and much-loved doctor who worked in a very poor area for most of his life - but he certainly didn't have a way with kids!

Girliefriendlikesflowers · 21/02/2017 14:44

I am now wondering when it became common practice to brush your teeth with toothpaste as we do today? Makes me also wonder how my nan managed to keep all her teeth well into her 90s 😀