Call the Midwife.

[Toddlerteaplease]

What is going on with Mother Mildreds make up?

@WhatKatyDidNot I still cut up old T-shirts to use for dusters and window-cleaning cloths. #wastenotwantnot!

It was good to finally see the two latest sisters to the order get a look in this week. I do feel that storylines go through the motions these days rather than concentrating on main ensemble characters... we need to care about people to invest in them!

Having said that - Dr Turner is in almost every scene and I still don't give a damn about him!

Now watching Vera from last Sunday. The actor who plays Reggie is in it...

Is it me or is CTM not as, errr, ‘sad’ anymore? Yes there are some moving moments (literally) but having watched some older episodes they were real sobfests. The one where Roy Hudd was an old soldier with leg ulcers and he left Jenny some glasses and a bottle of spirits, then Chummy’s mum dying and let’s not forget Barbara dying (I was still weepy the next day).
The CTM Fakebook page has loads of comments posted after each episode saying ‘cried from the start’, ‘have gone through a box of tissues’, etc. I’m sat there with cheeks drier than the Sahara.

I think 'oldskool' CTM died along with Barbara... things have downhill since then. That was a deeply upsetting episode, beautifully acted. It was the death knell for the series as well as poor Babs.

It's heyday for me was the Barbara, Patsy, Trixie combo with Sister Evangelina still in the mix.

The only reasons still to watch are Jenny Agutter and Linda Bassett.

I agree I rewatched the one from series 1 with the brother/sister from the workhouse yesterday and I was a complete mess for the rest of the day 😯😳

It’s not so hard hitting anymore- but then perhaps that’s the reality of the 60s compared to 50s?

I think it’s lost it’s direction a bit. I feel like some of the midwives are just incidental characters. Like Trixie, such a fun character but lately it’s been Oh my Godmother bought me this fabulous frock and nothing of substance at all!

It’s not so hard hitting anymore- but then perhaps that’s the reality of the 60s compared to 50s?

I think that's probably true. It remains properly woman-focused though, so I'm sticking it out.

They’ve forgotten to sign May’s adoption papers haven’t they? Last time we saw them they’d been put to one side to sign later....they’ve forgotten.

That's what happens when you are single handedly running the medical facilities for an entire district...

I think it's still pretty hard hitting but less in the way of slums. I remember slum clearance in the 60s.

There is scope for love interests too, we need a couple. What is happening with Lucille and Cyril I wonder?

Judging by a teaser tweet Stephen McGann put out yesterday, I think the tissue box might be needed on Sunday. Very worried about May.

It's not all been hearts and flowers in recent series. The abortionist storyline was pretty hard-hitting.

Also, I like the way they're showing that the old white working class community in Poplar is gradually breaking up. Some of them have moved into new flats and immigrants from the Commonwealth are living in the dreadful housing stock that hasn't yet been demolished (or saved from the bulldozers and gentrified).

There's a very interesting book by Michael Young* and Peter Willmott called Family and Kinship in East London, published in 1957. They documented how life in East London was changing as a result of policy decisions about the new housing. For generations private landlords and the council had been happy to try to keep families together. When a flat or house fell vacant the rent collector would know all the local families looking out for a home for a daughter/son and their family (they would be living with parents/in-laws while waiting) and one of them would get the tenancy. Win win socially in a community where everybody knew everybody else, as the young parents would have support from the wider family while their children were young and help with childcare which made it possible for the mother to go back to work, or she in turn could help out with looking after elderly/disabled family members.

However, after the war lots of people were offered new houses in estates built on the outskirts of London, a long way from family. Others got new homes in tower blocks as the old housing was demolished. The local authorities made no effort to keep communities together. As far as I can recall from the book, they say this wasn't just because it would have been a complicated job to rehouse whole communities together, it was a conscious decision that all housing decisions should henceforth be made on need. This was commendable in recognising that the new immigrant families had no chance of getting to the top of the list otherwise but it left a lot of young families and elderly people very isolated socially.

*Toby Young's father, but I don't hold that against him

The social history is fascinating.

The signing of the adoption papers - didn’t one of the Turners say ‘it can wait’ & then Mrs T put the papers by the phone?

There's a very interesting book by Michael Young and Peter Willmott called Family and Kinship in East London, published in 1957.*

Thank you for this recommendation! £6.80 and now on my Kindle!

Re those adoption papers - you could be right. So maybe May’s family will want her back and because the papers haven’t been signed - she may be returned to them?

Judging by a teaser tweet Stephen McGann put out yesterday, I think the tissue box might be needed on Sunday Or alternatively the party poppers and champagne, if he does fall foul of his stocking'd feet let's hope

I think we'd all prefer that than May going to another family.

Poppers rather than party poppers are more likely in the dungeon.

The only guaranteed way of needing tissues will be if the episode is solely about DrT. May the nation wail.

The lip syncing is terrible this week!

That baby 'boy' was very clearly a girl 😆

I don't think it was the same baby in the second shot.

What's wrong with the baby then?

What do we all think is wrong with the baby?

Oooh pethidine for the nun, I see an addiction storyline coming

He looks to well for cyanotic heart disease

Isn’t pethidine given in labour?