Call the midwife

[TwinklyFawn]

The call the midwife christmas special is on bbc 1 in 2 parts. The first part will be shown on christmas day at 20:00. The second part will be shown at 19:30 on boxing day. Series 14 will start on 5th January. I am suprised that it has not been renamed as the doctor Turner show.

Sex education was quite basic at my school 20 years ago. Luckily my mum was open. My mum grew up in the 70s. She told me that my grandma had a fit when she discovered that my mum was using tampons. My grandma thought that tampons were only for married women.

I was born via c section in the early 70s. I was breech and born 3 weeks early. My mum had a vertical scar. I had two c sections 20+ years ago (first unplanned, then second planned), and had the regular biniki line entry point. I think they only do vertical c/s for real emergencies now days as it's quicker to enter the uterus that way.

As far as CTM goes, it is getting to be a bit of a parody of itself now esp with the Turners! It used to be much more gritty. Even the families in poverty seem happy!

My mum was the same re tampons with me in the late 80s! Did not like me using them - thought they weren't for virgins! Weirdly I've encouraged my DD to use them but she doesn't like them.

Aah mention of Bryony Hannah reminds me of the good old days of CtM.

I liked the Turners’ developing relationship when Shelagh was still a nun. I thought that the writers and actors really nailed it. It’s a shame they’ve become so twee.

My mum (84) still disapproves of tampons, based on a surgeon telling an anecdote about a patient dying from a pulmonary embolus full of tampon fibres when she was a scrub nurse in the late 1950s. She will absolutely not be budged from her belief that tampons will, in time, be banned became they're dangerous.

My grandma thought that tampons were only for married women

So did my mother, back in 1969.

She was horrified when I bought some in time for my second period. I was already deeply disenchanted with the Nikini Garment.

I enjoyed this episode. Poor Paula 😢

I recognised the actor playing her dad, what’s he been in?

The actor is Paul Thornley and from what I can see he's had small parts in lots of different television stuff so you'll probably have seen him in one or more things over the years.

I can't stand Miss Higgins . Every workplace has a Miss Higgins .

She has grown on me. I can't stand doctor turner. He is always around to save the day. I am sick of his man splaining. He makes me feel like everyone else is thick. I get sick of Sheila too as she does nothing but simper.

I find it hard to beleive that sister monica joan has dementia. My granddad died of this horrible disease. He lasted 4 years. I get that every journey is different. However it is totally unbeleivable that sister monica joan hasn't got worse. It is like she has magically been cured.

Reggie now has a 70s hairstyle

I can't stand sister MJ and agree that dementia is minimal and has not got worse.

I like Miss Higgins, actress played a similar character in Waterloo Road

Did we ever get told that Sister Monica Joan had dementia or was it an assumption? I honestly can't remember. I think maybe it wasn't supposed to be dementia but just her all round strangeness and that for whatever reason she's a bit less strange at the moment but could go off into strange nonsense at any point.

If, however, we were told she had dementia then it's a nonsense that she'd be as with it as she is at the moment.

Yes we did get told that sister monica joan has dementia. In series 1 episode 6 she went wondering in her night dress. Doctor turner said that if a patient is found wondering in their night things they have dementia.

Can’t other maladies have the same symptoms in the elderly, though, such as UTIs?

Not that I could possibly disagree with Dr Turner, even though he did prescribe thalidomide, IIRC. Medical knowledge has developed very significantly since then, in many areas.

In the early episodes Sister MJ seemed such a hindrance to the staff at Nonatus - they would regularly have to stop their crucial life saving work in order to deal with her. I think they explained why she had to live at Nonatus instead of being sent to a home.

She used to regularly steal from the Poplar Markets and get in trouble with the locals in the early days.

Her turn-of-the-century back story seemed strong - perhaps another prequel direction after they’ve exhausted the blitz angle. I hope the writers are listening.

I would love a MJ origins series.

Thanks @TwinklyFawn so her recent "recovery" is all manner of wrong or the initial diagnosis was wrong.

@AsWithGlad UTIs in the elderly do represent with dementia type symptoms as does dehydration but we've not been given any indication that that's what was ever going on.

We've been done dirty with her storyline!

Sister MJ did have a UTI in one episode. It got worse and worse because she wasn’t telling Saint Turner her symptoms or allowing him into her room to examine her.

I didn’t finish 2 series ago when she had found a stray dog and was hiding it in her room. I often find myself wondering what happened to it.

It would make more sense if, after a couple of series, Sr Monica Joan had been sent to the retirement home owned by the order. She could then have been replaced by her identical twin Sr Monica Jean, who did not have dementia. Judy Parfitt is such an excellent actor/actress, I wouldn’t want the programme to lose her.

Years ago I worked in a convent school run by nuns. Some of the teachers were nuns, others were housekeepers and so on. Their order had their own retirement home by the sea, where elderly nuns went when they were no longer able to work in the school. (This did exist, the lay teaching staff were invited there for a day out once a year.) I think the order ran four or five schools in the UK, it wasn’t much bigger than the order which the Nonnatus house nuns belong to.)

It was a pity to kill off Sister Evangelina, though unavoidable if this was what Pam Ferris wanted, obviously. I thought she had great comic timing and was so plain-speaking and unsentimental, which was exactly the right counterpoint to all the schmaltzy crap.

Yes. My grandma didn't have dementia but she got confused with infections near the end. She didn't last 13 years once she started getting confused with infections.

Medical knowledge has moved on. However it was indicated in series 1 that sister monica joan had dementia. I find it hard to believe that she is still going either way.

Exactly.

I can see why they killed her off although it was sad. I can get my head around the fact that actors want to leave. However i often wonder how some of the characters that left are doing. It bugs me that cyril is still married although his wife left the show in series 12.