Call The Midwife Christmas Special

[PinkFrogss]

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

This is so sweet and made me laugh at my completely different BCG experience. At my school, after the BCG vaccine, people went around punching people on their upper arms where they'd had their vaccine to hurt them. Punch. "BCG!" Laughing. Obviously a very different school. I wish I'd been at yours!

I am glad others have mentioned the HEAF test positives in their lives. As I was watching, I was wondering why they were so worried about reactions. And I was sure that at my school if you reacted to the test, then you just weren't given the BCG as it meant you were already immune. No one was sent for x-rays or anything. It was years after 1969 though so maybe things changed?

Does anyone think Trixie might be pregnant after "I'm tired" "Not too tired I hope" 🤢
They don't generally refer to sex in CTM so I assume it was for a reason...

I don't think she is pregnant, although I guess she could be. I took it to mean they were "reconnecting"...

Yes…WHY on earth was Matthew calling out for ‘nanny’
they don’t have a nanny do they? If they did, he wouldn’t be calling Trixie to demand she comes home and sorts the situation out with Jonty.
I was thinking perhaps that shouting out for nanny was force of habit?

I realise I was probably about the same age as the Turner's daughter in '69. I wasn't allowed to stay up late to watch, so watched it on the news the following morning. From memory, school had broken up & it was the summer holidays. As pp said, definitely no fancy dress, parties - or themed cakes! At least not where I lived. I only remember cakes for birthdays & Christmas. I was seriously impressed that my Mum took the trouble to make me a birthday cake in the shape of an 8. Mostly people would make a normal round, or square cake & then put little figures etc on the top. No caterpillars, can of Coke, or spaceship shaped cakes. I think they're a much more recent thing.

When I watched that I was sure someone on this thread would bring that up!

Headache. Calling for nanny at a time when nanny has gone home, or possibly doesn't even exist. Possibly signs of a serious illness?

I’m thinking brain tumour:
symptoms:
headaches
seizures (fits)
persistently feeling sick (nausea), being sick (vomiting) and drowsiness
mental or behavioural changes, such as memory problems or changes in personality
progressive weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
vision or speech problems
I’ve asterisked the possible symptoms already seen. Calling out for (non existent?) nanny and his unreasonable behaviour last night could be indicative of ‘mental and behavioural…’
His behaviour in last night’s episode was very odd for that particular character.

I agree with PP-early seasons so so much better.

I am watching the rest on catch up this morning-I did the unthinkable and fell asleep in front of it last night.

For me that says it all really...

They did the brain tumour storyline the other year with the train driver. I think they're still doing a bankruptcy storyline and he's got a lot deeper money worries than he wants to tell Trixie.
Finding out he lied about debt would upset Trixie much more than any health scare.

Yes, but Dr Turner can't invent a miracle cure for bankruptcy, can he? Or can he - perhaps he's going to branch out into other fields now that he's conquered medicine.

[I may not be taking it entirely seriously these days]

In soapified CTM I'm sure he can.

I used to enjoy the early series as a "must watch" because so much of it showed a London on the edges of my memory (60s baby in inner London). However like all these long running dramas it switched from drama to soap some time ago which is a shame IMHO. I remember Casualty crossing that rubicon and becoming a particularly sappy soap after years of being a really good contemporary drama.

It doesn't need to be all doom and gloom all the time but when serious mental and physical conditions magically recover (Fred's ludicrously speedy recovery from tetanus, Daniel's miraculous recovery from juvenile arthritis) it sends really misleading messages and doesn't help real life people suffering from such conditions.

I also find all the medical professionals showing liberal values not common for another thirty years very unrealistic. Medicine in particular was a very conservative and male dominated profession. DM in the 60s had a GP practice who in many respects were good family doctors but "didn't believe" in contraception for women or in abortion. Private options were out of reach of women like DM.

It shouldn't be such a problem in period dramas for the characters to show the values in the context of the time instead of presenting the views of the day as entirely the preserve of "bad" characters. It just makes characters into cardboard creatures.

If Trixie is staying they really need to get her a better wig.

If I were a highly qualified and experienced community midwife and a man suggested to me that I should be equally happy and fulfilled delivering meals on wheels I'd be furious too. Its not insulting to the WRVS or diminishing of their work to point out that they are not equivalent.
This kind of expectation and trivialising of skilled women's value may have been a more common expectation then but women were no less frustrated by it.

I wonder if Trixie were a doctor if he would have suggested she do a little light first aid instead?

The Trixie/Matthew storyline felt quite real to me, even being soapy. This place is littered with stories of couples who suddenly have very different ideas of how the relationship could go. I think someone said previously that they must have talked about her continuing to work before they got married. But I could see a man in Matthew's position agreeing that of course she could keep working while it's all romance and plans.

Then when it comes down to the reality of it, he's dealing with whatever woes he's got and she's off working he changes his mind. The traditional and familiar wife role he's used to suddenly seems much more appealing and he wants one of those wives thanks. It still happens today in many, many couples.

It was a very dull episode overall though. The one birth was such a cliché too. I was playing solitaire on my phone during a lot of it.

I'd forgotten how good it used to be until I saw some clips recently.

Yes, I don't think it's working up to Matthew being ill. I think it's more likely that Matthew feels he (and Jonty) need Trixie more than her job (vocation) allows and that will create a crunch point. Ultimately the decision will rest with Trixie, and she is unlikely to be fully happy being a Lady engaged in charity events, when she has spent all her working life assisting and advocating for pregnant women and babies in the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

I think it's a realistic quandary for those characters, it would be easy to just make it neat and tidy that Trixie and Matthew's marriage goes smoothly without any personal conflicts of interest or compromise required, but Trixie's demanding work and her new role as a Lady, a wife and a (step)mother to Jonty would definitely be at odds with each other at times. If it wasn't, we'd all be saying it was unrealistically easy for them I think it's a good storyline and am interested to see how it pans out.

I’m finding this series just a bit too dull and twee. At least Saint dr Turner didn’t manage to save the TB victim. Slightly more realistic.

As for Trixie and St Matthew well not so saintly in this episode. And if there is a nanny why on earth can’t he just deal with it. He’s not particularly likeable so I’m finding I’m not that interested. Love Phyllis and Millicent. My favourite characters at the moment.

I agree that Matthew is acting normally for a man of his socioeconomic class in the 1960s and that Trixie is behaving typically as a wife/stepmother with a challenging career.

Matthew respects intelligent women (his late wife worked in advertising) but he’s underestimated the demands and unpredictability of midwifery. Had he and Trixie lived together before marriage that wouldn’t have been the case, but they did not, per the norms of the time. So he’s finding that part of married life unexpectedly difficult because the reality was a genuine surprise.

I think it’s been written really well and I don’t think that Matthew is a bad’un. He needs to be frank with his wife about his financial worries - but I think that keeping concerns about business and money away from one’s wife was not abnormal in the 1960s, where finance was often seen as a male preserve. Fred and Violet buck the trend actually, but on the whole the husband handled that side of things back then.

The fact they live the opposite side of London can't help! Why wouldn't she transfer closer to home?

Matthew did suggest changing to a nearer, more convenient job (ideally a naice one, back at the Lady Emily) but Trixi said Poplar was her patch and she was sticking with it.

Because then they'd have to write her out.

I’ve already commented today but I’m back to say how much I like Joyce and Rosalind. Well-drawn characters and plenty of friend-chemistry between the actresses. I’m loving Joyce’s single-minded ambition, I don’t think we’ve seen that before and it’s refreshing to see nursing portrayed as a serious career (I dislike the “angels” nonsense).

Speaking of strong friendships, I think that Phyllis and Millicent are super.

Anyone know how many more episodes there are in this series please?