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Original poster

No Call the Midwife thread?

57 replies

Youcanstayundermyumbrella · 26/12/2017 10:14

Is there one hiding in a different folder?

What did we think of the Christmas special? Good to see Anita Dobson at work! And the doctor and Shelagh were slightly less annoying I thought.

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Flomper · 26/12/2017 10:48

Anita Dobson, thats who it was!

I thought it was a but formulaci, tug on people's heart strings formxmas this year (well it always is but moreso)

Teenage DS watched it with me for the first time and even he said god why are they trying to depress and upset people, its Christmas!

I did feel.for anyonebhaving suffered a stillbirth watching this at Christmas too.

Original poster
Youcanstayundermyumbrella · 26/12/2017 10:52

Yes, re stillbirth. My heart goes out to them too.

I stupidly let DD (7) watch this as I lost track of time and therefore had chats with her about neonatal death, abortion and domestic violence. (She's seen plenty of birth scenes before though.) Won't be doing that again.

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Flomper · 26/12/2017 10:58

yes same here, 13y old ds was visibly shocked about the baby and I had to explain to him that some babies sadly dont make it through birth. I dont think he realised that some pregnancies dont end with a live baby. He hadto be resusitated at birth, whihc he knew, but he was shocked when I said if youd been born then you probably wouldnt have survived. I dont think he picked up on the abortion references. He knew what the DV was referring to but, again, I could probably have done without explaining who that babies father was.

Stillbirth, DV, rape, incest and abortion was probably a bit much for one christmas day episode I think!

Mrscaindingle · 26/12/2017 12:04

I was excited about this as its one of my favourites but do think it's becoming a bit issue led, like a lot of the soaps now. As in how many issues can we fit in to one episode?

And I thought the Dr and Sheelagh were more insufferably smug and annoying than usual Grin Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind.

SimonBridges · 26/12/2017 13:27

I love it. Dh went out so I watched on iPlayer and had a bloody good cry.
I know it’s saccharine but I don’t care. I just treat it as a story, not a documentary.

LoniceraJaponica · 26/12/2017 15:01

I thought it was a bit depressing.

I am old enough to remember the winter of 1962 - 1963. It was grim. My parents could drag my sister and me all the way down to the shops on the sledge because there was so much snow. The lack of milk deliveries actually did happen.

greensnail · 26/12/2017 15:24

I love call the midwife but found it a bit heavy going for Christmas day. Looking forward to the new series though.

DropZoneOne · 26/12/2017 17:28

My first daughter was stillborn and I usually love call the midwife. Always watch the Christmas one, don't remember them be g quite so heavy going. Had to turn it off at the caravan scene and spent the next half hour being comforted by DH.

No mention in the Radio Times and the "distressing scenes" warning beforehand didn't cut it. Had I known it was stillbirth I would have saved it to watch at a different time, not Christmas Day, with the knowledge it was coming so I could prepare myself. Soaps manage to publicise miscarriage/stillbirth storylines without ruining the drama, not sure why this couldn't.

Original poster
Youcanstayundermyumbrella · 26/12/2017 17:44

Huge sympathies, DropZone. I agree that they could have warned viewers.

The Christmas episode has been pretty grim in the past too. One year it was about a women who had lost multiple children in the workhouse, looking for their graves. My friend, who has had to move away from where her son is buried, was in pieces.

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Humphreyhippo · 26/12/2017 18:08

I thought it was awful, apart from the Anita Dobson storyline. Formulaic, cheesy, and in the case of the baby, medically implausible. I guessed what would happen as soon as the hot water bottle went in and had a bet with my dad ( watching CTM for the first time) that he would revive. And the whole policeman / Nurse Crane burgeoning romance is just a copy of the Chummy and wotsit storyline. Lazy, bitty and saccharine. Just hope Little Women is better.

BuzzKillington · 26/12/2017 18:14

We have just watched it. Thought it was rather boring and I nodded off a couple of times.

ButtfaceMiscreant · 26/12/2017 18:17

I guessed a couple of the plot "twists" (the baby reviving and the estranged daughter coming back), but I did enjoy watching how they tried and failed to hide Helen George's pregnancy! She looked lovely though, and hiding pregnancies on TV always makes me laugh (before anyone thinks I am mean!)

WindyWednesday · 26/12/2017 20:26

I didn’t realise Helen George was PG, I thought she had some baby weight when she was filming. I was thinking she’s gone back to work quickly.

ButtfaceMiscreant · 26/12/2017 20:48

I thought it was filmed before she gave birth? Pretty sure I read an article about filming in snow in the middle of summer, and Helen George's baby arrived late September time-ish? (I Googled that last bit, my memory is not that sharp!) If it was after she went back I feel awful, although I still think she looked great as I thought she had the pregnancy glow (definitely not how I looked or felt for months after giving birth!).

BertieBotts · 26/12/2017 20:55

I was looking for this thread too.

I do think some of the stories are a bit neatly tied up now (the estranged daughter coming to the pantomime!) whereas they used to have a mixture of sad and happy endings as they were based on RL stories. I wondered if the caravan story was based on a real one though as some of the details just seemed like it was a bit "stranger than fiction" if that makes sense. There was a stillbirth revival in series one too though that baby was also premature. It made me wonder if it was more common in the past as they mentioned that the heartbeat was slow and hard to detect and the breathing was shallow. It surprised me that the midwife wasn't disciplined over it because I would have thought that would be a grave error requiring further training? But then perhaps if it was genuinely more difficult to tell with the tools they had then, it wasn't seen as being her mistake?

There were really a lot of triggers in one episode though :( Stillbirth, incest and DV all in one.

Serendipper · 26/12/2017 21:37

Watching it at 38 weeks pregnant was a bit of a mistake! Went through a ton of tissue and gave the family quite a concern. Baby was kicking happily throughout though which helped!

HulaMelody · 26/12/2017 22:08

My first baby was stillborn and I found the scenes so so upsetting and graphic.

I really should learn to avoid Call the Midwife as there are always difficult storylines, but to be honest I usually prefer the grit and social history to the twee nonsense and that Monica bloody Koan.

HulaMelody · 26/12/2017 22:08

Joan!!

Maryann1975 · 26/12/2017 22:59

We watched it with the dc, thinking it would be suitable family viewing (like last years South Africa trip). How wrong we were. So much explanation needed about the still birth and then the dv (managed to brush off the incest bit). I was really disappointed the bbc thought it was suitable to put on at family viewing time on Christmas Day. The cub bit made my cub smile though.

MissEliza · 26/12/2017 23:46

Youcanstay I remember that episode so well. It broke my heart at the time as I had a tiny dc then. However we need to remember that was actually a true story and that makes me grateful for the society we live in today. I thought last night's episode was lovely but all of us sitting on the sofa were a bit Hmmat the baby being stuffed in a bag and suddenly crying out. Shouldn't the midwife have waited for a doctor to have confirmed the baby was dead? She seemed to give up on it very quickly.

MrsJamin · 27/12/2017 08:03

The storyline did seem quite implausible, that the new Midwife gave up so quickly in resuscitation and he came back to life. The thing that most got me was anita dobson, my goodness what an actress she is! Just incredible and so moving. I think it's taken a leaf out of eastenders book for how to write a Christmas day special though.

YouAndMeAreGoingToFallOut · 27/12/2017 09:04

I thought it was awful. I've been fortunate enough never to experience a stillbirth, nor to be close to anyone who has, but surely for anyone in that position it would have been extremely painful to watch that, and the miraculous outcome might have made it worse rather than better?

I also thought the child abuse and incest storyline was both depressing and laboured. It was clear from Anita Dobson's conversation with the nun that her late husband had sexually abused their daughter, so it felt unnecessary to then have a scene with the nun cross-checking medical records and coming to the realisation as if it's the first she's ever heard of it.

EsmeeMerlin · 27/12/2017 09:16

I had to fast forward the caravan scene. Am 30 weeks pregnant and just choose not to watch scenes like that right now.

I thought the whole episode was quite hard going for the Christmas special and did not know Barbara and tom were leaving for a while. Will still look forward to watching the new series.

CurbsideProphet · 27/12/2017 09:24

I was sorry not to see Patsy and her nurse girlfriend (completely forgotten her name). I had thought Patsy was going to Hong Kong temporarily to see her dying father? They weren't even mentioned...

ifigoup · 27/12/2017 09:37

There was also no mention of Sister Mary Cynthia, was there? Last thing I remember she was having a mental breakdown. This is a long time later, and obviously in real life recovery from mental illness can be very slow - but is she just never going to be acknowledged again?

And is Miranda Hart/Chummy just never coming back from running the maternity home?