Call the Midwife...or the Turners?

[Maireas]

I noticed that the last thread was full, so I hope no-one minds that I've started a new one!

Some information about forced adoptions here.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57231621

Didn't they show forced adoptions during an episode at the mother and baby home that Chummy went to work in?

Genius @SpindleWhorl. 🤣

Binglebong was coming onto share that. It’s heartbreaking- those poor women.

I'm loving the re-writes!
I do feel like Nurse Crane and Miss Higgins really have been the stars of this series so far, everyone else has irritated in varying measures.

I remember the early series would always have me in tears - either sadness or relief/happiness. I have yet to be so equally moved....I remain hopeful...

Just caught up. Am I the only one that thought that the Miss Higgins actress had the Punjabi written down phonetically and had it with her during the scene?
She seemed to address her clipboard with every "translation", rather than the women.

Oh she definitely did, but I thought that was fairly realistic. I’ve done a fair bit of language study and when delivering group presentations in two languages I’d always write out what I was going to say in the foreign languages and read it out rather than risk having a mental block in front of the audience! 🤭

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/26/hundreds-uk-women-demand-formal-apology-forced-adoptions?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Women asking for apology over forced adoptions. One in the article was 24!

Changing the subject slightly, there's a great session with some practicing community nurses and some of the cast of Call the Midwife here on vimeo: Queen’s Nurses and Call the Midwife in Conversation.

Phyllis is marvellous.

I would very much like to be just like Phyllis.

I love her.

And wee Nance.

And brava Trixie.

Secrets can maim us. Shame can close us off. What we bury drags us down. And there can be no flight from it.

Speak. Speak up. Speak out. Find the words to express the facts that matter. Bring them out into the light.

Into the air.

Hiding heals nothing.

Silence saves no-one.

When we hurt we can be acknowledged.

Alone we are at the mercy of the storm.

Sometimes, some of us are drowning because we cannot speak.

@SheldonesqueTheBstard

Even the Guardian thinks this series is a bit mehh.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/may/27/why-call-the-midwife-medical-miracles-are-a-joke?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[quote Taswama]Even the Guardian thinks this series is a bit mehh.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/may/27/why-call-the-midwife-medical-miracles-are-a-joke?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other[/quote]
“ But, intriguingly, December of that year saw the world’s first successful heart transplant (admittedly in Cape Town not Poplar). But imagine the scene, as one recently dead Nonnatus patient lies next to another in the final stages of heart failure, and Dr Turner shouts: “Trixie, I’ve got an idea – get me a kitchen knife!”
😂

The stars were bright last night maireas. - they really were. 💫 x

I think the series is a tiny bit meh. I think I am often more touched by the wee speech at the end than I am by the stories.

That probably doesn’t say much about me. 🤷‍♀️

I'm glad that the stars were bright, my friend ✨x
I feel the same way about the speech at the end, it's usually very moving.

Only Phyllis and her telling of Lorca’s ‘it’s true’ (held in my soul forever) and what she said after could ever top the little speeches.

‘And, if I may, the pain it costs to love, I believe it is always worth it.’

Perfection.

I like the speech at the end. In the very first series, there was a lady who had her first baby in her 40s because she was able to have a c section on the NHS. All her other pregnancies had ended in the baby dying as the mother’s hips had been deformed by polio and she hadn’t been able to deliver her previous 8 or so babies. The speech at the end focussed on Nye Bevan’s ‘No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.’ quote. I watched that as I fed my newborn baby, delivered by crash c section on the NHS, after a uterine rupture and haemorrhage nearly killed us both. The speech at the end of episode has always stuck me.

That, and Phyllis sobbing on the steps after Barbara died.

I like the end speeches as well.
The Australian migration one stuck with me .. poor kids thinking they were going to an idyllic life but the reality wasn't good :(

Yes I like the bit at the end too. I'm definitely getting more sentimental in my old age.

I love this thread, I’ve been nodding along with so much of it.

bikerunski

I think (and also know - like you) that the NHS is one of the Crown Jewels of our beautiful land.

Love these alternative scenes! I can't take Dr Turner seriously anymore onscreen (it was a fine line).

Talking about Dr Turner in the courtroom, remember the episode where he was supporting a man in court? I can't remember if it was the married-father-to-be-caught-cottaging or the young lad in borstal with the pregnant girlfriend (wife?).
The judge told him to shut up 😂

Are they trying to force too many storylines into each episode? Instead of giving each one proper weight? I think it might work better if they stuck to three and interwove them.

Nancy revealing her secret to a room full of people - including men/near strangers such as Cyril - seemed unlikely. Confiding in one person would've been more believable followed by a lot of sneaking about until the secret was eventually discovered. Maybe in a dramatic fashion if the child became seriously ill and Nancy was next of kin.
I'm sure plenty of the older episodes included more of a slow burn re.storylines.

If the child got seriously ill, dr t would cure her. Pronto.

Not much of a story if you know the end at the beginning…

Also I remember thinking Sister Julienne was spectacularly crap re. Sister Mary Cynthia's whereabouts and treatment. She didn't seem overly concerned when it was revealed Sister Mary Cynthia wasn't at the Mother House as she'd been assured.

I think Sister Julienne likes a steady ship and not good with things that disrupt that? It's a pity that Sister MJ doesn't sometimes spout more of her pearls of wisdom/moments of sublime clarity to Sister Julienne.