Call the Midwife

[Toddlerteaplease]

Well this is boring.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18

If you seen millions murdered for being Jewish then imagine you do anything look less foreign/Jewish in new country. I didn't think he sounded entirely English though? Having recently watched a profoundly moving documentary called 'The Last Survivors' about some of the few remaining (British naturalised) Holocaust survivors, they all had varying degrees of 'trace birth country accents', even though they've been over here for seventy years or so.

It was such a moving storyline in one of the best episodes for quite some time.

My aunt had a very strong accent and her mother didn't speak English- after at least 30 years in UK.

His accent came and went I thought. Did it say he was Polish- borders moved. My family were from Russia at the time, ended up in Poland and their former town is now in Ukraine (I think- desperately trying to remember its name!)

@SarahAndQuack

I am still cross Patsy and Delia aren't in it any more. I know it's probably because Emerald Fennel wanted to go do directing things instead (and why not), but that was a cracking storyline. I don't really want to see (or imagine) Timmy getting arrested for cottaging and Dr T explaining the finer points of sodomy to Sheila while she gasps over his wisdom.

I too miss Patsy and Delia but last we heard they were travelling; they were in Botswana which was then Bechuanaland. They won't be back but at least had a mention.

Cynthia seems to have gone off the radar, poor girl. She went through such ordeals and it's unfair of the writers (though not unusual), to make her go off the radar.

@LaBelleSauvage123

I don’t get why the change in the homosexuality laws was apparently shoehorned into the episode, unless it’s a foreshadowing of something to come in a later story. It just felt like another way of illustrating the saintliness of the Turners with no relevance to the episode at all.

They do like to put in a bit of real life reportage every so often don’t they, just so we realise time is moving on and fings ain’t wot they used to be. Wasn’t it moon landings a while ago?

I think we could well be being softened up for a gay man story, if not Tim then one of the Krays was gay, maybe they will work that in , perhaps linking it in to a story about caring for old people/ being good to your old mum. If the production team want any tips I am available as an advisor, I used to drink in the same pub as Violet Kray and remember her funeral, though that won’t be for this series......

I know the Krays were more Mile End than Poplar, but if they can happily locate a care home for anxious new mothers in Beckton, which at that time was the largest gas refining works in the country and a very polluted place (still is) then they clearly aren’t too jiggered about geography.

@Akire

I imagine if he was 12 going into the camp he could easily have been relocated to Uk at say 16 and lot his accent over time. He did look around 40 his wife looked late 30s too. If you seen millions murdered for being Jewish then imagine you do anything look less foreign/Jewish in new country.

He married into a Jewish family, so was hardly trying to hide his faith.

The actor was doing an accent. It just wasn’t a Polish accent. To me it just seemed a poor piece of casting.

There were thousands of Poles who stayed in the U.K. after Yalta meant they could not go home. It was actually the single biggest immigration to the U.K. It’s just something that is never talked about, for some strange reason.

@TheLightSideOfTheMoon

The Turners were weirdly relieved about the legalisation of homosexuality.

Do you think they’re subtly outing Timmy?

They need to show whine in another gay storyline soon. We’re due one.

Will give Dr Turner another chance to cock his head and sympathetically nod.

I’m convinced it is the posh chap who is going to come out.

He’s just going through the motions with Trixie and clearly doesn’t fancy her at all.

@TrashyPanda, oh dear poor Trixie if that is indeed the case?

But he did have a wife and child before, not that that is definitive. But he seemed quite keen on the wife.

The problem I think with all the gay storylines is that they don't seem to include a reasonable variety of views that would have been common at the time among the cast members. Even a few years ago there were some attempts with contraception to include the objections that some of the nuns might have had. Possibly a little half-hearted, but we were allowed to think that they could object but still be good people. Or see problems with that policy while still having a real understanding and empathy for the lives of the patients.

There were still plenty of people who were not happy with homosexuality or gay culture up well into the 80s, and maybe even more so among some minority communities.

The issue with the pram is a little weird, it was only a few years ago we saw mums leaving prams all over Poplar, including outside the community center when they went in to visit the midwives.

And by a few years ago I mean on the show!

I think Trixies rich gentleman is just a shit actor, don’t think he’s deliberately uninterested in her!

Back in the old seasons the storylines would be more drawn out with lots of shadowing, and now it’s like each storyline is confined to its own episode. I much preferred that style

I thought it was better than the last couple of seasons.

@user1471504747

I think Trixies rich gentleman is just a shit actor, don’t think he’s deliberately uninterested in her!

Back in the old seasons the storylines would be more drawn out with lots of shadowing, and now it’s like each storyline is confined to its own episode. I much preferred that style

I didn’t realise they had tanning salons in the sixties. All those years I wasted trying to get a deep tan like his with ambre solaire and British sun.............

Trixie's rich gentleman reminds me very much of Patrick Baladi (who can often looked tanned but it's just his natural skin colour). Perhaps the actor also has Middle-Eastern heritage?

Perhaps the scene with Trixie making a massive fuss about leaving the baby outside was written by a very young scriptwriter with no idea of yesteryear ways? I didn't bat an eyelid, particularly as the mum was a just a stone's throw away in the house (and we've seen similar in previous series, without such castigation). It's not as if she put Melanie out and went off shopping, is it?

If anything at your wits end it’s very sensible thing to put baby safe and walk away for some time out. they also made big issue of the twin rival yet at end the older twin didn’t even have the traditional CTM heart to heart the sister just left!

@SheldonesqueTheBstard

Cyril must be very blessed.

😂😂😂

I think it’s the combo of perma-tan and blindingly white gnashes that make rich guy look more than a little incongruous in 1967 London.

Plus he really isn’t a very good actor. It’s like he was called in at the last minute and had the script thrust into his hands and told “five minutes and we’re on!”

Those of you of a certain age might remember the confusion that often flitted across the faces of the actors in Crossroads. That’s what he reminds me of.

Those of you of a certain age might remember the confusion that often flitted across the faces of the actors in Crossroads. That’s what he reminds me of

That’s spot on!

He is wet blanket, we need him to accidentally find Trixie delivering a baby hanging off a bridge and rescue her with will you marry me to clinch the deal.

He seemed a more rounded character in the “dying wife” episodes. Now he’s very wet. When he was in the park buying an ice cream I thought the TV had changed channels. He looked so modern.

It feels like the story lines don’t converge.

You had the heat wave in one story line but then people had cardigans and coats on in another.

No one in the Jewish family was complaining about the heat or mentioned it.

The struggling mum had her coat on.

There were very few scenes where anyone crossed over.
I think they have kept them as separate shoots.

It was a very odd episode. Trixie was wrapped up in her cape, but then in a summer dress with Matthew.

There were thousands of Poles who stayed in the U.K. after Yalta meant they could not go home. It was actually the single biggest immigration to the U.K. It’s just something that is never talked about, for some strange reason.

Blimey, you don't live near my in-laws then! Where they are people never stop talking about it. My MIL's birth family were Polish (she's adopted), and even she constantly bangs on about the subject.

I agree with @SantaClawsServiette that the gay storylines really push credibility. I find it quite insulting - pretending everyone would have been fine with homosexuality contributes to the idea that homophobia isn't really that big an issue, and it's a bit like gaslighting.

I would find it totally in character for Sister Julienne to be extremely anti, for example, and I would expect someone as mansplainery as Dr T would be much more likely to rail about how disgusting gay men were, than to be supportive.

How on earth did they get pregnant when they’re never any closer than 6feet away from each other?!

@QuantumHypothesis

How on earth did they get pregnant when they’re never any closer than 6feet away from each other?!

Cyril is we’ll endowed…

@SheldonesqueTheBstard

Cyril must be very blessed.

That comment made me snort!

I find it quite insulting - pretending everyone would have been fine with homosexuality contributes to the idea that homophobia isn't really that big an issue, and it's a bit like gaslighting.

I agree. I hate in series when characters have very modern attitudes. Sometimes they would have had opinions that would be abhorrent today. They could have had a character mentioning that they think it’s dreadful and then someone else give the modern opinion and why.