Call The Midwife Series 13 Part 2

[PinkFrogss]

Or Call Saint Turner, as the show has really turned into.

I think a pp was right. 1970’s mums would’ve dished out a wallop for getting lost out at sea on a lilo under the guise of ‘you gave us all a fright’. Ditto getting lost in a supermarket/market, running out near a road, reporting that a teacher had also given us a slap for something we didn’t do (“she must’ve had her reasons”) etc. kids today don’t know they’re born having mums on their side 😂

Deffo play school and it was free I think? Absolutely no way my mother would’ve paid for such an activity.

Birth rates went up steadily from 1950 to 1962, then almost as steadily down again. In 1969 they were about the same as in the mid 50s. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/birth-rate

😂😂😂

Accurate, it's been bugging me who he was reminding me off and that's exactly it 😂

I can't get over how he's the only Dr in the whole of Poplar, he can't go to Devon for a week everyone would die!

I can’t let my kids anywhere near the sea on an inflatable after the public information films of my childhood. A family member bought them all one to use at the beach and I was twitchy as hell until they all (quickly) got punctures. And I am NOT a twitchy parent.

I meant to say how irritated I am by the non-speaking student midwives. Why on earth are they there? It’s just awkward.

I read the way is open for him to come back.

maybe he bunks off to Jamaica and gets together with Lucille whilst Trixie gets off with Cyril, the world’s fastest qualified social worker.

Birth rates went up steadily from 1950 to 1962, then almost as steadily down again. In 1969 they were about the same as in the mid 50s. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/birth-ratee*

I think PP means births on the midwives books.

In the book she does say they had about 100 a month in the mid 50s but by the mid 60s it was just about one a week - the rest happening in hospital.

I meant to say how irritated I am by the non-speaking student midwives. Why on earth are they there? It’s just awkward.

I couldn't agree more. They all arrived as a foursome, yet two haven't said a word or been referred to since. I get annoyed every week on their behalf!

@Romeiswheretheheartis i think I’d have to consider quitting my job if I was them. 😂

They had such strong, topical storylines in S1-6, particularly. I miss that cast and those writers, though I did like Vanessa Kirby. Most people who left over the years got interesting offers, and/or had enough of playing the same character. The ones who stay endlessly are choosing stability and assured income over other, perhaps riskier options. (Except Linda Bassett who does passion projects in the off-weeks, and tilted head Turner, who can’t act but is a nepo-DH). Jessica Raine’s career, for example, never really took off into the stratosphere as expected.

Yes, that is what I meant. I couldn't quite remember the numbers though!

Re secondary drowning, inflatables at sea etc., the Saving Lives at Sea RNLI prog is a great educator.

Yes, that's true - hospital births were far more common by then. Presumably they'd still see the community midwives before and after, so you'd expect the same number in the clinic and home visits to follow up, and we don't seem.to see as many of those either.

I am chortling at Dr T, May, Angela and Teddy being Jeffrey, Zippy, Bungle and George from Rainbow as suggested upthread. Shelagh will have handicrafted an actual felt rainbow to go over the scene and Wonder-Tim will accompany on piano. I quite like the Turners though - and the fact that May was told no, wait a minute and cracked on anyway has rather been skated over I feel! Although it took them an AGE to check the sea. What with the dress at Christmas and the fussing etc, wonder if her mum is going to show up and we will have an impassioned scene of Shelagh finally cracking and pointing out that Mays mum is an ex-addict, abusive and neglectful hypocrite and doing her in with her sewing machine and a stale iced bun to the the cranium?

I quite enjoyed seeing the young family tell Venomous Veronica to shove it as well. Cyril (on the job training??) just wanted to show them they weren't alone/resources were available and I think Phyllis would have gone in more subtly- she seemed to be scoping out the situation with a view to offering some tough but supportive love. Sister Veronica looked way too happy about calling the welfare office!

I also didn't pay Matthew hinting at being broke much mind til this episode. Trixie wasn't this foolish before though; she would have noticed. Writers messing with her again. She also has her own money iirc, both earnings and inheritance, so that shopping bag scene was unfair and unwarranted. I never realised how shiny Matthew was before either. I assumed his part of the beach story line was to set up his exit by melting in the sun...

Cyril's career mive into social work seems seamless. Was he not a mechanic/trainee engineer initially. Got into debt to qualify and now turns his back on it.

The Turner family drive me mad.
Simpering Shelagh, who not only works but manages to turn out perfect costumes for the kids, who just happen to win first prize for every competition they enter.
I don't know why the other parents bother entering their own kids.

I meant to say how irritated I am by the non-speaking student midwives. Why on earth are they there? It’s just awkward.

I couldn't agree more. They all arrived as a foursome, yet two haven't said a word or been referred to since. I get annoyed every week on their behalf!

The non-speaking midwives will be Supporting Artists (SA's) not actors. They will be paid as regular supporting artists, not actors. The one who had a line the other week will have got an extra payment for her line! The more lines they give them, the more they will have to pay them. Supporting Artists are not trained - anyone can sign up to an agency. I used to do a bit of it after leaving uni (had a line in Casualty with Charlie back in the day! 😂)

Yes, but having them repeatedly in scenes with fewer than 10 characters and just sitting there mutely is weird. It’s not like being an extra in a scene or two. When the extra nuns were knocking about, at least they only appeared to sing. They weren’t sitting silently in the corner of the living room like a spare chair.

The scene where the 4 students were at the table and Sister Julienne came to pick two names out of the hat for who was going to the beach was unintentionally hilarious. DD just deadpanned "let me guess ..... oh what a total surprise."

They don't really have the screen time for 4 students. But its supposed to be a training programme... and they need the cash.

I'm not sure why they needed to actually go to the seaside though. Except for the swimming ability!

Lol. I thought it was just my 1970s mum! Everything always my fault, or must be my fault, or should have been my fault if it wasn't my fault or must have been. Taking the side of the other was standard. The times she did take my side was if she felt they were somehow above her either in status or in their attitude (teacher, shopkeeper etc) and then it was more about winning and emerging triumphant having firmly put them in their place which she always did because she was a no-nonsense, ass-kicking 70s mum.

I went to nursery in the 70s and it was definitely called nursery, not pre-school. It was as nursery is today (minus the safeguarding and educational element, obvs, being the 70s) ie full days or afternoon/morning sessions, colouring in, singing songs in a circle, outdoor play on some antiquated equipment from the 50s and "nap time" whether you wanted an hour's afternoon nap aged 4 or not. It wasn't for toddlers or babies though, it was just for the year before Reception. There were also "playgroups" for toddlers which were church hall type drop ins with weak squash and some sad sticklebacks.

I believe the "pre-school" or kindergarten Trixie would have meant would be attached to a private London day school possibly, and I don't think that would have been common across the UK.

Agree.

Why not just have two new midwives if two out of four are just background?

Also, if Trixie really wants to spend more time with Matthew, rather than shipping little Jonty off to a private day school, she could not sleep over at Nonatus House. After all, there are plenty of spare midwives there seemingly just twiddling their thumbs waiting for an opportunity to step up.

But not all "hospital births" were in actual hospital. I was born in a maternity home in the 70s and this wasn't unusual. CTM has their own maternity home so that's where they can carry on being midwives on site. Even if the order of St Nonnatus moved out of London as per the books (from memory) sometime in the 70s, the maternity homes didn't have to be staffed by nuns (mine wasn't anyway) so the midwives like Nancy, Trixie, Lucille, Jenny, Patsy and Shelagh etc would carry on working at the maternity home if home births weren't as common. Maternity homes were definitely still operational until the early 80s.

I'd love to see CTM reach the end of the 70s personally. I feel the 80s is when things really moved on but it's good for the 70s

This. I assumed it was a private school and I don't know anything about their terminology at that time but there were playgroups that weren't really childcare more about socialisation - my mum earned in one and Nursery Schools and Classes attached to schools with qualified teachers and NNEB staff these were about Education not childcare as only on school terms and probablypart time. Childcare (social services) and Education were run on different lines until the 90s.