Call The Midwife Christmas Special

[PinkFrogss]

Anyone watching? Apologies if I’ve missed the thread.

Thinking about that sofa cheque.

Maybe it will bounce?

I see what you did there.

I noticed that the midwives were talking about how dilated the model mum was in centimetres. Would they really have been using cm in 1969?

When did nurses and midwives got to stop wearing such silly hats?

They are unnecessary really weren’t they? Just fashion at this point

I like how they dress Violet in this now. Her formal clothes are just right for her.

Late 80s we were still wearing hats.

I loved my 'proper' nurses uniform. Hat. Dress with belt and buckle. Tights and lace up shoes.

No perfume or make up allowed

My uniform was almost identical to their’s until around 1975. Starched aprons and caps. Then we changed to white dresses and I think our caps continued till around 1977. Then they were ditched.

Tonight's episode was much better than previous ones. The absence of Nancy and Collette was a big improvement. Nothing against the actors, but their characters just don't really belong. I hated Trixie choosing sofas while Fred was critically ill and everyone else was praying and rooting for him. That was completely out of character. But otherwise a great episode.

@MadeOfAllWork I wonder if women in the East End dressed up to the extent Violet does for council business. Would they really have worn hats like that in 1968?

Oh Matthew definitely has money problems. He looks a bit too worried now when money is mentioned

My paternal grandmother dressed just like Violet in the 1950/60s. She worked full time into her 70s and that’s how she dressed to go to work. She worked in a millinery shop. She got a staff discount on the hats! She always wore a “two piece suit”, chunky costume jewellery and a hat and fine gloves to go out. Usually one glove on and the other fashionably draped over her other wrist to carry the big square very flat handbag.

My Mum always said she had delusions of grandeur 🤣

Trixie clearly not noticing the clues about money is really annoying and like other things at the moment a regression of her character. The whole Tom engagement broker apart because of her delusions about being a vicar's wife and her expectations and her desire for a rather more up market way of life that he could give her, I remember her talking about having a nice parish in the countryside too bring up children when he was being asked to go inner city.

But her character had grown since then and recognised those flaws in herself. She is supposed to be, and has been, far more insightful.

But then posh bloke lost his wife and she stepped in and has completely regressed. She pisses me off but I do feel like they've done the dirty on her as a character. Even without her regression, after a couple of alcoholic stints, the failed Tom thing, the dentist going back to his wife and generally being an overlooked old maid could they not have given her a break and let them both go off in happiness?

We were also discussing Violet’s outfits. They seemed ludicrous for 1969. But I’m sure the researchers know better than us.

I expect she would have made a lot of them, given that she runs the haberdashery.

Ive seen pictures of my GDMs circa 1969 when they would have been 70ish and they're all wearing what violet is wearing.

Tbh they were wearing similar to that in the late 70s to my DPs wedding

Interesting that the model’s baby has congenital hip dislocation….my dad was born with it in the 1930s but it wasn’t recognised and as a result he was very physically disabled…my sister was born with it in the 1960s, and with no medical advice, my mum put her in double Terry nappies for several months and totally solved the issue, with absolutely no ongoing effects…and that’s the approach they’ve taken on CTM

So no Barbican flat for the Aylwards then I take it. Maybe he's bankrupted himself refurbishing all his slum flats to be a better landlord.

I’d say Violet’s clothes are spot on…I was born in 1970 and these kind of outfits are exactly the kind of thing I remember by Gran and her friends wearing through the 70s

When Violet dresses up she looks exactly like a bustier version of when my grandmother dressed up.

My GM and screen Violet would have been roughly the same age.

Jeezo oh. I know it’s only a tv show but I got goose pimples from head to foot when Fred recovered.

I don’t think Matthew is having financial difficulties. He comes from money, and I expect he’s come into an inheritance too. I seem to remember him mentioning last night about tying up his father’s estate (unless something’s come to light?)

I burst into tears when Fred was struggling to breathe, he did a very convincing job of someone utterly terrified 😥

The show would have lost a lot of its heart if Fred died.

Could the financial issues he might be experiencing be the storyline that are going to use will see him leaving? Jumping the gun but if so thinking suicide?

They are going to use