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!

Yes, it was very badly done!

@Maireas

I can't warm to Trixie, I find her voice very annoying.

She's been there too long

yes - she would surely have made a good marriage and moved into activism. I think the writers ran out of ideas for her after she split up with the boring vicar and couldn’t bring herself to date the divorced father.

I agree re Trixie. Her character is great but it isn’t believable that she’s still there after all this time and with all her contemporaries having moved on.

I don't mind Trixie's character, but I think what jars for me is that they're blending that soapy 'I never age, I am Meredith Grey and eternally around 30' thing with a big awareness-raising emphasis on the passing of time. There are shedloads of programmes where we just accept that the characters are permanently ageless, but it doesn't work when you keep banging viewers over the head with reminders about what year it is and how much has happened in the world since last year.

I agree, though, that Phyllis and Miss Higgins are just excellent. I so enjoy them.

A Millicent and Phyllis spin off would be amazing. By day, helping the NHS and by night solving mysteries, like Miss Marple would

Did someone mention that upthread or did I dream it?

I loved the episode one Christmas where they decided they'd just do a meal with whatever they fancied - one had a large trifle, the other beans on toast!

Do the midwives at Nonnatus get paid?

They obviously get bed & board, but I find it odd that Trixie would have stayed so long.

The nuns have taken a vow of poverty. I'm guessing funding is from the CofE?
Obviously NHS for everything else.

The midwives like Trixie must get paid, but I don't think it would be a lot because, as you said, they have room and board.

The nuns wouldn't get paid because they aren't allowed to have money or possessions. They have everything provided by the order.

Who would pay the midwives?

Funding/charity donations?

The real Trixie did get married IIRC.

Midwives would have had NHS pay I think.

I had an elderly friend who was a university lecturer, but was also member of a religious order. He had college rooms to live in, he received his salary and kept a small amount to buy a lot of cheese!
Most of his salary went to the order. I assume the Midwife nuns receive a salary from the nhs, but it goes to the mother house to be budgeted.

Sister Julienne definitely gives out brown envelopes with wages in. We’ve seen her give Fred his and he mentioned thinking it was someone else’s (more money than he expected) which suggests it isn’t just the handyman she’s paying like that.

Presumably the mother house gives her money to be used in the running of the building and to provide food and necessary items for the nuns and midwives as well as wages.

I assume the NHS will be giving money straight to the Order who then distribute via the mother house.

YY, I think they would have been paid in the communal pot. I think even back then C of E orders were having pretty serious cash flow issues - you need enough young vocations to support the elderly.

It hadn't occurred to me that NHS would be paying them.

I was thinking that they were sort of volunteers for the order & in effect "employed" by them.

I have also been a bit confused by how qualified the nuns are & if it was ever just the nuns doing the nursing/midwifery.

The nuns were fully qualified midwives (I know this from the books but I'm fairly sure it's pointed out pretty early in the series).

Yes, the nuns are a nursing/midwifery order, fully qualified, just as you get teaching orders etc. The NHS paid for the midwives salaries, medicines and equipment.

@SarahAndQuack

The nuns were fully qualified midwives (I know this from the books but I'm fairly sure it's pointed out pretty early in the series).

Ah yes that does sound familiar.

I suppose I find the dynamic interesting.

If their full wages are being paid by NHS but they only receive a fraction of it, I would have thought that that is quite a contribution to the nuns.

Obviously they learn a lot from being there, but are also a considerable help to the nuns-practically & financially.

But the nuns seem to be in charge overall, so I guess they are in effect guests of the order & run to its rules.

I don’t think you did dream it monotone. If you did then I’m dreaming with you

I think that was mentioned and/or millicent going all Marple.

Spiffing I say. 😍

@NoIdontwanttoseeyourknob
I think the writers ran out of ideas for her after she split up with the boring vicar
That’s her real life partner 🤣🤣

Okay - I've watched the last episode twice, and I give up.

The blessed Shelagh wants to do one last thing to show the sainted Timothy how much she loves him, but can't think of anything. Doctor Infallible shouts "I know" and gurns frantically at the camera.

But what was it?? Sending Mae and Angela to the Harvest Supper in fancy dress? (Honestly, has that woman nothing better to do in her spare time?)

shelagh did something with a button didnt she?

@SheldonesqueTheBstard

I don’t think you did dream it monotone. If you did then I’m dreaming with you

I think that was mentioned and/or millicent going all Marple.

Spiffing I say. 😍

I think that was me, a couple of pages ago!

They will retire to Southend-on-Sea and start up Trilby & Crane Private Investigations, and will permanently be fighting the Board of Health as a back drop to their detection work into dreadful misdemeanours amongst the golf and tennis set.