Call the Midwife

[Toddlerteaplease]

Well this is boring.

The social distancing in CTM makes everything seem really impersonal. It's not wonder Trixie and rich guy aren't hitting it off as they're so far away from each other. The actress is obviously pregnant here too so that doesn't help.

I really can't understand why they're doitn SD. No other shows have!

I remember Babs Windsor doing the ‘naughty but nice’ adverts for cream cakes and that had to be in what, some point in the 1970s? (I’ll check.)

I agree with pp that the cake coyness and trendy attitudes seem bewilderingly misplaced in time.

And as for the dog shit, I agree that was weird - shitty shoes stayed outside where they were cleaned with buckets of water and only then brought in to be dried out. The thought of them in a 1960s nurses’ kitchen is a bit bonkers, really.

Barbara Windsor did the ‘naughty but nice’ ad in 1979!

I've just watched this on catch up:

Whilst it was normal to leave babies outside in prams, I don't think it was normal to leave them screaming their heads off on the pavement was it? As someone else said, Trixie knew the mother was struggling too. I think the mother wore the coat/cardigan to cover up the redness from the mastitis.

This is the first episode where I noticed Trixie's pregnancy - I didn't know the actress had had another baby.

I did think that Cyril was going to be angry about the pregnancy as he didn't beam his wonderfully smile immediately.

The Polish furrier's story was heartbreaking. I thought he told it well. I thought he kept his coat on not because he was ill but so that he would be ready to leave at a moment's notice.

I know it's twee and a bit daft but I do enjoy it.

@GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat

All the characters are so simpering, it's really annoying! I miss the grittier storylines of earlier series and the mix of historically accurate perspectives.

I completely forgot about Cynthia, is she ever coming back?? I thought her storyline would continue, it was good albeit sad. I googled and it seems she's left?

I even find the coy references to cake every episode annoying! It reminds me of 'prosecco time!' and gin memes and the modern day diet industry. I don't remember baked goods being treated with such saccharine coyness in the 80s when I was a child. It was a case of everything in moderation. Middle aged relatives partook or didn't but didn't make a huge cringey event of it. I guess we stuck to 3 meals a day, didn't snack as often and walked more. I just don't remember people doing the 'ooooh so naughty!' thing that the midwives and sisters imply every flipping episode!

How did they get rid of Cynthia I can't remember?

@SoupDragon

I know it's twee and a bit daft but I do enjoy it.

Me too

How did they get rid of Cynthia I can't remember? I recall she went to the Mother House (where we were first introduced to Miriam Margolyes' character) for rest and recuperation?

Didn't Cynthia go to a normal recuperation place after they found out the Mother House had put her in a mental hospital? She wasn't a nun in the end.

It’s sad that Cynthia has been totally forgotten. Her character really suffered. It would be great to see her again.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

Didn't Cynthia go to a normal recuperation place after they found out the Mother House had put her in a mental hospital? She wasn't a nun in the end.

I don't remember this. I really hope she's living a happy life somewhere dont try and tell me she's not real

She is therefore willingly sent to the mental hospital that Patrick himself recuperated at after the war, which seems a much more therapeutic environment. Upon arrival, she asks to be called simply Cynthia by the treatment team.

So, she is saved by Dr Turner 😂

Well, the Nonnatus nuns had a hand in it, rescuing her from the mental hospital.

Even if we don't see her again we could hear about her once. She was a sweetie.

And Fred ndVioet.

But it was Dr T who saved her with a head tilt and a "When I needed help with my mental health..."

Didn't Cynthia have severe depression? I thought she ended up in a mental asylum (I think she was based on a rl character that that happened to? I'm sure it was mentioned in the books although it's been years since I read them.)

I was really annoyed how they got rid of Patsy and Delia, they were a fab couple and made for an interesting story line.

I want Chummy back, she was my favourite 😁

Oh yes, Chummy!
She was fabulous.

Yes, I really liked Chummy, she always seemed like a very real person.

I think Cynthia was raped and never fully recovered. The Mother House wasn't very helpful so St Patrick of Poplar tilted his head, opened his arms and grimaced her into a mental hospital. Thus she was written out cured.

I am rewatching in iplayer from the start and the difference is startling between the first few series and the most recent ones.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18

The 'naughty but nice' approach to cake is again a modern construct, isn't it? In previous times having a mid afternoon cup of tea and a slice of cake was just a normal part of the daily routine. Nothing to make a fuss about! A cake would have been baked in most homes at least once a week!

The medical/midwifery storylines all seem to be very nicely packaged to conclude within one episode (and all with a positive spin) which is not how real life works.

Exactly. Even when I was a child in the 70s cake was a standard in many homes. There was always a cake on the go.

Cake was a good way to make an egg go a long way. One cooked egg was one thing for one person. One egg in a cake was a thing that would give the whole family something in their tummies.

My grandmother made the most amazing one egg cakes, a trick she learned during the war you wont be surprised to hear!

And YY to a slice of cake being a thing that kept you going, especially if money, and therefore food, was thin on the the ground so the only issue about portion sizes at dinner time was that they were too small. This was a time when a dinner was meat, spuds and two veg.

My GrandMIL had a wonderful story about when her then (now late) husbands boss invited himself for dinner during the war. They were in a protected profession and he was "well placed" so rationing was not something he ever dealt with. She served their steamed stodgy pudding as a first course. Boss thought this hilariously common. Until she offered him his dinner and he didnt want it as he was full, which was lucky as they only had enough for their family (and then barely), although they went without pudding so did go hungry that day. Boss never invited himself again but did make sure a few extras went GFIL's way.

I'm surprised at the idea of one-egg cakes being wartime recipes. I guess it depended where you were - I know eggs were more available in the countryside, but I remember my grandmother, even in quite rural Wales, explaining that eggs were virtually unobtainable through the war so they never baked much. My gran was a terrible cook simply because, growing up very poor and then during the war, no one would ever trust her to practice cooking, as the results would be so dire if she messed it up. She was still very unconfident decades later.

Total digression there - except I suppose, possibly, we're meant to think the late 60s/early 70s (I forget what year we are?) are meant to be reflecting my gran's generation who really didn't necessarily cook much before marriage?

My grandmother got married in 1939 at 17 (my aunt was born 6 months later ;) ). She was the eldest of 6 in a family that were paying their way but very much working class, every penny was made to stretch.

When she could get an egg she would make a cake with it as it went further that way, I suspect she was taught that by my great grandmother.

@iklboo

I think Cynthia was raped and never fully recovered. The Mother House wasn't very helpful so St Patrick of Poplar tilted his head, opened his arms and grimaced her into a mental hospital. Thus she was written out cured.

Cynthia was not raped though was brutally attacked.

The doctor she saw whilst at the Mother house thought she needed in patient care so she was admitted to the mental hospital.

The atmosphere and the treatment at the hospital was dreadful, not suitable for her, so the Nonnatus nuns got her out and Patrick found her a decent place to recover.

We've heard nothing of her since.

I should add that it was a point of great pride that she once won a cake competition in the 70's with her one egg cake against the stalwarts of the WI, when eggs where in abundance!