Page 2 | Call The Midwife 2023....

TitsInAbsentia · 02/01/2023 16:56

Just checking in to express my surprise that Dr and Mrs Turner have not been sainted yet...

Thought the main storyline was really touching, not sure where they're going to take the Moseley story line - will there be more of it or was it just used to kick start Lucille's depression story line?

New nun is clearly a bit of a pish taker, but also why would Matthew (handsome but with a personality like one of those plastic film fishes you get in a cracker) go straight out and get a scooter just on her say?

Madeintowerhamlets · 02/01/2023 17:03

I haven’t started the new series yet but watched the Christmas special. I have felt for a while that CTM has become a parody of its former self. The Matthew Aylward character is just awful, so wooden. A poster on the other thread was spot on that he has more chemistry with Nancy than Trixie!

Madeintowerhamlets · 02/01/2023 17:04

My favourites are now Timothy Turner (the rest of the Turners are unbearably twee & annoying), Nurse Crane & Miss Higgins.

PriamFarrl · 02/01/2023 17:06

How old is Trixie now?

PriamFarrl · 02/01/2023 17:09

Answering my own question here but it seems that episode one was 10 years before the latest episode. If Trixie was, say 23 then, she’d be 33 now.

CaptainMyCaptain · 02/01/2023 17:25

Madeintowerhamlets · 02/01/2023 17:03

I haven’t started the new series yet but watched the Christmas special. I have felt for a while that CTM has become a parody of its former self. The Matthew Aylward character is just awful, so wooden. A poster on the other thread was spot on that he has more chemistry with Nancy than Trixie!

This episode was better than the Christmas one.

CaptainMyCaptain · 02/01/2023 17:26

It was Enoch Powell causing the trouble I remember it happening. Mosely was in the 30s.

Notateacheranymore · 02/01/2023 17:35

paintitallover · 02/01/2023 00:07

I think men do remarry more quickly. I can't remember the source, but I found it convincing! 😄

My mum and dad were the most loved up couple you could imagine but when she died from metastasised Breast cancer aged 45 in 1998 (I was 22), he was looking again within 18 months and remarried in July 2001, aged 48. They are still married, also hugely loved up.

If the tables had been turned, and my dad had died first, I’m still not sure my mum would have been ready for at least 10 years!

Pebble21uk · 02/01/2023 18:40

Who on earth came up with a lying nun! Ridiculous!

I feel as though because they have lost some of the main characters, more peripheral characters are becoming prominent... Mathew for starters. Also noticed that Georgie Glen who plays Miss Higgins has main billing on opening credits as well now. Having said that - she is one of the saving graces along with Nurse Crane. Younger actors appear to move on after a couple of seasons, older ones probably don't have the offers sadly!

I liked the main storyline, but as a lesbian I very much doubt that the whole of Nonnatus would have been so sympathetic toward the couple as portrayed. That's the trouble with CTM... always goes for the twee 'it'll be okay in the end' option!

MoscowMules · 02/01/2023 18:55

I'm trying to figure out how many series they have left...

The nuns left in 1978 and this series is 1968, Enoch Powell's famed comments were about April 1968 weren't they?

I do wish they would bring in a few more "main" midwife/nun characters.

It's seems to be getting bogged down a bit with the "peripheral" character story lines. Basically what I'm saying is I want more cute babies 🤣

We now only have Lucile, Trixi, Nancy, and Nurse Crane. And there seems to be limited character development for them without throwing us some weird curve ball.

Lying nun is a strange add to the series 😳 I already don't like her.

icanwearwhatiwant · 02/01/2023 19:13

When the lying nun got a scooter she was saying "at last Nonatus house is moving with the times" but didn't somebody else get a scooter years ago?
I have vague memories or Fred teaching them how to ride it, but who?

Original poster

Elderflower14 · 02/01/2023 19:52

icanwearwhatiwant · 02/01/2023 19:13

When the lying nun got a scooter she was saying "at last Nonatus house is moving with the times" but didn't somebody else get a scooter years ago?
I have vague memories or Fred teaching them how to ride it, but who?

They were all learning to ride the scooter when Chummy and Peter returned from Africa... Fred was giving them lessons.

OP posts:

CaptainMyCaptain · 02/01/2023 19:54

Pebble21uk · 02/01/2023 18:40

Who on earth came up with a lying nun! Ridiculous!

I feel as though because they have lost some of the main characters, more peripheral characters are becoming prominent... Mathew for starters. Also noticed that Georgie Glen who plays Miss Higgins has main billing on opening credits as well now. Having said that - she is one of the saving graces along with Nurse Crane. Younger actors appear to move on after a couple of seasons, older ones probably don't have the offers sadly!

I liked the main storyline, but as a lesbian I very much doubt that the whole of Nonnatus would have been so sympathetic toward the couple as portrayed. That's the trouble with CTM... always goes for the twee 'it'll be okay in the end' option!

In the very beginning they were sympathetic and non judgmental about brother/sister incest and that was in Jennifer Worth's book so it's not too much of a stretch. Also Nsncy had suffered from being on the receiving end of social disapproval and we don't know much about Miss Higgins do we? She quite quickly came up with the problem about the Death Certificate.

woodhill · 02/01/2023 19:55

CookieMoolier · 02/01/2023 05:11

Watched the Christmas special but not watched the new series yet. The doctor and his wife annoyed me alot. Can't abide Trixie and her fella these days and why did they get rid of Sister Hilda? It has definitely lost it from the early days. I agree with PP; would love to see Tim the doctor's son go off the rails and join the Manson family or something !

Yes I liked Hilda

PriamFarrl · 02/01/2023 20:02

Pebble21uk · 02/01/2023 18:40

Who on earth came up with a lying nun! Ridiculous!

I feel as though because they have lost some of the main characters, more peripheral characters are becoming prominent... Mathew for starters. Also noticed that Georgie Glen who plays Miss Higgins has main billing on opening credits as well now. Having said that - she is one of the saving graces along with Nurse Crane. Younger actors appear to move on after a couple of seasons, older ones probably don't have the offers sadly!

I liked the main storyline, but as a lesbian I very much doubt that the whole of Nonnatus would have been so sympathetic toward the couple as portrayed. That's the trouble with CTM... always goes for the twee 'it'll be okay in the end' option!

I agree about them all being fine with a lesbian relationship. It annoys me so much when characters seem to have modern sensibilities like that. We’d like to think that they would be people like us and therefore accepting, but that wouldn’t be the case.

InMySpareTime · 02/01/2023 20:09

Oddly, I'd expect the older midwives to be more accepting of lesbian relationships as after both wars killed a lot of men it was fairly common for "maiden aunts" to just set up house together or for women to live together as "companions". A lot of these friendships born of circumstance became de facto lesbian relationships even if they were never described in those terms.
By the late 60s the baby boom had rebalanced the male/female ratio so it was less common.

Toddlerteaplease · 02/01/2023 20:19

The acceptance of Reggie grates on me. I really can't imagine that people in those days would have been so inclusive. Or understanding of learning disabilities. Sad though it is.

woodhill · 02/01/2023 20:20

Toddlerteaplease · 02/01/2023 20:19

The acceptance of Reggie grates on me. I really can't imagine that people in those days would have been so inclusive. Or understanding of learning disabilities. Sad though it is.

Much if it is like that, the nurses are so 21st century in their mindset

PriamFarrl · 02/01/2023 20:20

InMySpareTime · 02/01/2023 20:09

Oddly, I'd expect the older midwives to be more accepting of lesbian relationships as after both wars killed a lot of men it was fairly common for "maiden aunts" to just set up house together or for women to live together as "companions". A lot of these friendships born of circumstance became de facto lesbian relationships even if they were never described in those terms.
By the late 60s the baby boom had rebalanced the male/female ratio so it was less common.

I agree but I do wonder if they would have even realised that those women who were ‘companions’ were in relationships. DH was talking to his mum, who is 80, about a couple of women they knew years ago. They lived together as companions. DH put it forward that they were in a relationship. MIL wouldn’t even hear of it.

woodhill · 02/01/2023 20:21

Yes so true, it was fairly common

icanwearwhatiwant · 02/01/2023 20:25

@Elderflower14 thank you!! I knew I hadn't made it up.
Then it mysteriously vanished and was never mentioned again.

MoscowMules · 02/01/2023 20:25

There was a elderly pair of women living in our small community, and even in the 90's I remember as a child, extended elderly family referring to their "special friendship" but not in a derogatory way.

Just if the kids asked why "Betty and Florie" lived together the answer was always, oh they are just special friends who look after eachother, have done for years"

It was kinda a everyone knew, but nobody cared sorta thing.

CaptainMyCaptain · 02/01/2023 20:28

Toddlerteaplease · 02/01/2023 20:19

The acceptance of Reggie grates on me. I really can't imagine that people in those days would have been so inclusive. Or understanding of learning disabilities. Sad though it is.

In my town at that time there was a place which was quite well known for its work with people with Downs preparing them for useful life. It's true that most were institutionalised but not all. I knew a couple with a daughter with Downs who worked in their B and B. My schoolfriend's dad was Head of a Special School and some of the students from his school went on to get factory jobs. This was around 1966 to early 70s. Times were changing.

EduCated · 02/01/2023 20:50

Just watched. Agree with the modern sensibilities, it’s very much all the racism and homophobia and bad things seem to come from ‘them’ and not ‘us’.

I did think Vanessa Redgrave sounded noticeably shakier. I wonder what they would do if she stepped back?

Pebble21uk · 02/01/2023 21:00

CaptainMyCaptain · 02/01/2023 19:54

In the very beginning they were sympathetic and non judgmental about brother/sister incest and that was in Jennifer Worth's book so it's not too much of a stretch. Also Nsncy had suffered from being on the receiving end of social disapproval and we don't know much about Miss Higgins do we? She quite quickly came up with the problem about the Death Certificate.

Show quote history

From what I recall from reading the books, they were only sympathetic in this instance of incest because both children had come from horrific backgrounds and grown up seperately. They had both been very damaged and finding each other again had been their only happiness. That's why they were sympathetic - not sympathetic with incest pers se.
Not quite sure how I feel about lesbians being lumped in with incest as something not to be judgemental about!