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Call the midwife starts this Sunday!!! Who's excited?

999 replies

Soubriquet · 16/01/2018 10:30

I certainly am

I don't think it's a good as it was when it first started, and it can be a tad predictable at times but I still love this show

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FairfaxAikman · 06/02/2018 17:02

@StripySocksAndDocs
My grandmother was a nurse in the 50s.

She's never spoken to me about abortions then but my grandfather did say one thing - the rule was when something came in on your shift you stayed till it was dealt with.
He was waiting to meet her in a tea shop and she was late - three attempted abortions had come in.
Apparently her first words to him were "I never want to see another fanny ever again", the first and only time he has heard her use that word.

StripySocksAndDocs · 06/02/2018 17:10

There's an abortion referendum coming up here so the subject will come up possibly. If it does I'll ask!!

She's spoken about it from the time it was legal. Just not before it was.

TheQueenOfWands · 08/02/2018 07:15

Is Steven McCann related to Rory McCann?

(The Hound in GoT and the 'Yarp' guy from Hot Fuzz?

StripySocksAndDocs · 08/02/2018 07:22

Don't think so.

There's four McGann brothers - I've still not recovered from all of them being in the Hanging Gale.

It was quite a few years ago and I'm not recovering from anything positive.

ReelingLush18 · 08/02/2018 07:28

Paul (who is currently in Holby City), Steven (in CTM), Mark and Joe are the four brothers.

It is however possible that there could be another (younger) generation of McGann actors?

SoupDragon · 08/02/2018 07:45

There is a sister too.

Rory’s Wiki page doesnt mention anything about being related to those McGanns though so I’m guessing he’s not even a cousin.

Clawdy · 08/02/2018 20:47

Different names - how could Rory McCann be related to the McGanns?

SoupDragon · 08/02/2018 21:07

Well, quite easily.

However I didn’t notice the different surnames 😂😂

ZBIsabella · 08/02/2018 21:08

I just watched the abortion episode, very well done as ever. I did feel that it did not accurately reflect most people's views in 1963 - that that was murder of the baby. The ex nun who is now the doctor's wife would almost certainly have felt the au pair was a murderess. That is not now most people's views but they do sometimes represent things as people feel today for a 2018 audience rather than how most people felt back then. Anyway it was still very well done, particularly the beauty pageant and the Huntingdon's disease item. I would have asked the father if his mother could have moved in to help - most grandparents then and now would step in rather than see the children in foster care.

damnderek · 08/02/2018 22:10

Yes - why was there no discussion as to other family?

Desperately sad.

MargotLovedTom1 · 08/02/2018 22:12

Paul McGann is in Holby?! Well, I guess he has bills to pay like the rest of us.

I completely agree with BertieBotts up thread about the whole dentist's daughter saga, and I think Trixie seeing the disturbed girl staring at the wall in the institution gave her the impetus to end it, out of worry that Alexandra would also end up with significant issues.

I hadn't even realised Helen George was pregnant!

Does anyone remember Violet Buckle when she was Frank's first wife Monica in Shameless? Completely unrecognisable.

Call the midwife starts this Sunday!!! Who's excited?
Clawdy · 08/02/2018 22:16

She was also in The Lakes with John Simm, and looked incredibly different.

Appuskidu · 08/02/2018 22:18

Does anyone remember Violet Buckle when she was Frank's first wife Monica in Shameless? Completely unrecognisable.

Wasn’t she Joy Wilton in ‘Soldier, soldier’ as well? I loved that program!

MargotLovedTom1 · 08/02/2018 22:29

I didn't watch Soldier Soldier, but I did watch The Lakes and don't remember her in it at all. Off to Google. Maggie O'Neill was very beautiful (am sure she still is!). Odd to see both these actresses as matronly types in the programme.

StripySocksAndDocs · 09/02/2018 06:43

I think Trixie seeing the disturbed girl staring at the wall in the institution gave her the impetus to end it, out of worry that Alexandra would also end up with significant issues.

I think that girl was playing Hide and Seek; she was the seeker and was counting by the wall.

Everyone struck me as unrealistically happy innthe home. Another thing I found odd was why, when the mum became distant, the dad could figure out that his children needed to wash themselves . The clothes being dirty and the flat a mess, ok, fairly believable but not the washing. He was clean - the girl was filthy. It just seemed a very childish interpretation - dirt smeared on face.

EmilyAlice · 09/02/2018 06:56

ZBisabella I don’t think you can generalise about how people felt about abortion in 1963. My recollection of the debate about legalising abortion recognised that the choice was not about abortion or no abortion, it was about legal or illegal abortion. I was in my teens in ‘63 and I remember discussions about the awfulness of illegal abortions. The midwives would have been all too well aware.
There always were a group of people who were anti-abortion, but many people would have been closer to the reality of back street abortion than they are now.

ReelingLush18 · 09/02/2018 07:04

Odd to see both these actresses as matronly types in the programme. Gosh I knew I recognised Maggie O'Neill but struggled to put a name to her! It's rather like Beatie Edney playing Prudy in Poldark.

SoupDragon · 09/02/2018 07:10

I think they sugar coat some of the stories to modern standards of tolerance to avoid offending people. If they made a huge thing of “murdering a baby” there would probably be a good few complaints even though it would have been honest.

MustBeThursday · 09/02/2018 08:16

On the subject of Mrs Buckle, I'm sure she was William's mom in Goodnight Mr Tom, too

maddiemookins16mum · 09/02/2018 08:19

Yes, Violet Buckle was Tom's (very scary) mother in Goodnight Mr Tom.

maddiemookins16mum · 09/02/2018 08:20
  • William's mum.
ZBIsabella · 09/02/2018 09:08

Yes, the dirt on the girl's arm looked a bit planted on (although not unusual - my mother taught in the 40s and 50s in very very poor areas, 40 a class and the children often with 10 babies at home often were not at all clean nor had proper clothes).

I think the story writers need Trixy never to be married so any suitable man has to go eventually (I suppose until she leaves the series).

they always show children's homes and respite care as wonderful places in huge country houses. My father a psychiatrist in the 60s spent a lot of time taking people with disabilities out of really awful institutions and into smaller better more modern facilities. There would have been some nice homes of course but not all. That looked more like a private boarding school than a state run residential home for sick children.

However it is a lovely programme which is very well done and I always enjoy it. I am not surprised it is so popular and one of the few programmes which is mostly women in the lead roles which we don't get that often.

MargotLovedTom1 · 09/02/2018 15:21

Why do you think they need Trixie never to be married? I know nurses were supposed to give up work once they were married (not sure when this stopped), but it didn't stopped Chummy or Shelagh?

I must have missed that the girl staring at the wall was counting Blush. I thought Trixie gave her a lingering, significant look though.

MargotLovedTom1 · 09/02/2018 15:23

Stop not stopped.

ZBIsabella · 09/02/2018 16:11

I think the story line works better if she isn't married and still lives in the convent etc.

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