Call the midwife- brand new series starts tonight!!

[Soubriquet]

At 8pm

Who's ready for it?!

[deloresclaiborne]

im quite new to call the midwife, im catching up with old episodes on the drama channel.
where's the blonde midwife , the one who had a drink problem and also chimmy i noticed her husbands still in it but not her did they get devorced

[NormaSmuff]

the blonde one goes to AA meetings, and currently stayed behind in South Africa
chummy must also be doing good works abroad somewhere

[Clawdy]

But Chummy has a small child, no mention of him either? How can she still be abroad?

[MrsSlocombesPussy]

An article in the Radio Times said that Chummy was supposed to be in this series, but Miranda Hart dropped out at the last minute, so they had to do some rapid re-writes.

[blueskyinmarch]

I love Call the Midwife and last nights episode was wonderful. Missing Trixie. Helen George must be off doing something else at the moment. I am pleased but also slightly appalled that they are now at 1962 - that is the year i was born. It makes me feel so old.

[Gizlotsmum]

Didn't chummy go to run a young mothers home?

[deloresclaiborne]

oh ok thanks i didnt watch the christmas episode so thats where trixie is.
it seems mad that chummys husband never mentions her or his son

[spiderlight]

Boo - I wanted more Chummy! I really felt for Sister Julienne last night though :(

[ppeatfruit]

Yes I saw the CTM 'behind the scenes' programme Breward It was brilliant! The explanation of the fake new borns and how they did the thalidomide baby.

Yes I found last night's violence horrible, but that area was a very rough one for many many years, not just the 60s.

[AngelicaSchuyler]

I love this show but am quite disappointed they've gone down the 'miracle pregnancy' route for Shelagh. As someone who suffers from endometriosis and is struggling with infertility, it was refreshing to see a character who has made a fulfilling life for herself without being able to conceive and carry a child.

I know it's a feel-good show and I know some women are lucky enough to fall pregnant after they've been told it won't happen, but it doesn't happen for everyone - far from it

They have literally had Shelagh do all the things people well-meaningly tell you to do when you're trying to conceive. It all smacks a bit of 'just adopt/go on holiday/wear some frilly underwear (as in the xmas special), RELAX AND STOP THINKING ABOUT IT and you will magically get pregnant'.

Anyway, I may be slightly projecting here...

[Patienceandchocolate]

Angelica, I have been lucky enough to get pregnant as soon as we wanted t twice, so I know nothing of infertility. However, I agree with you. I liked the way that the Turner family were very happy, and adoption was a very positive step for them.

It feels like adoption is being seen as second best, and they are only truly happy now Shelagh is pregnant.

I think that they will use Shelagh's pregnancy will be used to highlight another difficult but very important issue. I wonder if she will get PND.

I am so glad CTM is back. Little Mickey reminded me of my eldest boy. He was lovely.

Did women like Mrs Watts often get such positive outcomes in 1962?

[Megatherium]

Do we think there could be a surprise pregnancy for the doctor after two adoptions?!

Why two? Have I missed something?

[Megatherium]

I couldn't understand why one of the nurses corrected a reference to a squint by saying it was astigmatism. Astigmatism doesn't really have anything to do with squints, does it? And I'd be surprised if anyone thought it could be cured by covering one eye.

[BikeRunSki]

Timothy Turner wasn't adopted. His mother died, she was Doc T's first wife.

[BikeRunSki]

megatherium, but that was the thinking at the time. I went to primary school in the 1970s and almost anybody who had anything wrong with their eyes had a patch.

[AndroidsConundrum]

Patience I was thinking that. A new life in a council house with the rolling hills and trees....top 'category' social housing for a divorced single mother in 1962?

[Hygellig]

I was a bit disappointed in Shelagh's pregancy too, which sounds very mean because of course she's over the moon - but I think it would have been nice to show her having a fulfilling life with her stepson and adopted daughter even if she couldn't conceive naturally.

I found this episode quite depressing after the Christmas special, but then it's always been more than just a Sunday night rose-tinted view of the past.

[Notjustuser1458393875]

Social housing was far more available then. Moving people out of the cities was a priority. A woman with two small children would have had no trouble. Even in the 80s it wouldn't have been much of a big deal.

[Wandainn]

Megatherium DS has astigmatism and narrowly escaped the eye patches when he was four. Nothing to do with squints afaIk, but there was some explanation that one eye is favoured to compensate, hence "lazy eye" and the good eye is patched. With DS they gave him glasses that did the same kind of thing and it worked.

[Gizlotsmum]

Astigmatism is to do with the shape of the eyeball ( it's more rugby ball shaped than round) and can be corrected with glasses ( lense positioning. 'Lazy' eye is when one eye is favoured by the brain over the other ( hence lazy eye) and the. Rain gradually stops using the weaker eye, affecting depth perception if not caught, patching over the stronger eye makes the brain stay connected with and use the weaker eye. My son has had to wear patches over the last 3 years ( he is now 5) and gradually his eyes are equallying out and both being used.. at least that is how I understand it. I guess astigmatism and squints could be related as it is to do with muscle structure around the eye..

[Gizlotsmum]

Sorry the rain should be brain

[agedknees]

I hope Shelagh Turner is not prescribed thalidomide for her pregnancy nausea. They never r ally finished that story did they?

[NormaSmuff]

i think Shelagh and her husband put two and two together. and it was stopped in 1961 i believe

[NormaSmuff]

Perhaps they will have a baby with some sort of special needs though

[TreeTop7]

The miracle pregnancy was a cliche and the only aspect of the episode I didn't care for.

The violence was portrayed really well. The mother taking her son-in-law's side was appalling but I was reminded that Princess Diana's maternal grandmother sided with her father during that divorce in the 1960s.

I love Harriet Walter and can't wait to see what they do with Sister Ursula.

I'm wondering if Timothy is going to rebel in some way.

Loved the retro Brownie uniforms. Mine wasn't that much different in c1980! I think we had bobble hats not berets though.