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.

I thought the Turners would adopt June. They must be missing Timothy.

He was also nasty Ricky Hanson in New Tricks

I thought it was a great episode, but sad. I guess I've got so used to the happy endings, I was expecting baby June's parents to change their mind. My cousin had spina bifida, so I felt doubly sad that they didn't want her 😔

I thought the same.

There was a story a few series ago about her being retired against her wishes and having to fight to stay on but I don't know/can't remember if that was at standard retirement age (60 for women at that time) or if it was X number of years after that the policy of 'forced' retirement kicked in.

I don’t think they would want to go back to nappies etc, they’ve both got full time careers and the children are older. A few years ago, maybe they would have adopted her.

I don’t think you could continue to do nursing after the age of 70, back then, unlike now.

@Bignanna I wish people wouldn't do it at 70. My colleague is 73 and really needs to retire, but won't.

I think Cyril will divorce Lucille, marry lovely nurse, and adopt June. Lots of scope there!
I want Roger and Nancy to reappear. Perhaps they are on a mini break to meet Roger's family.

So was Peter Davidson, the 5th Dr!

I've just tried to Google when the upper age limit for nursing ceased but keep getting useless info about pension limits.

I'm sure there was a maximum age when I started training in the 1980s but it has been removed due to discrimination legislation. There are many brilliant older nurses, but I believe they are over represented at NMC hearings for medicines errors. It is one of the reasons that we have to revalidate every three years.

Very Peculiar Practice was great. I wonder would it be dated?
The company I worked for in the eighties had a strict retirement age of 60 for women. They were all really ancient to my eyes. And wrinkly, because they chain smoked.

Linda Bassett (Nurse Crane) is 74. I would imagine her character must be at least late 60s?

Disabled children are still given up for adoption now, I thought it was quite telling that no one stood forward with an offer to adopt or foster the baby. The blonde nurse recognised that that it's very easy to judge unless you are in that exact set of circumstances.

It is heartbreaking but realistic sadly even if they kept the baby the chances are June would have ended up institutionalised one way or the other.

I think nurse Crane would have been retired in real life, nursing is a hard career and I certainly won't still be going out seeing patients at 75!!

What would she do if she retired though? Where would she live...or has she a tidy nest egg and investment property? (I hope so!)

A while back u thought she came into some money? You'd hope she would have enough saved up to buy a small flat or similar.

You'd think she'd have had enough of living at the nuns home tbh.

Is Nancy definitely not coming back? She's gone to the job with accommodation attached?

Nurses used to retire at 55 - in days before hoists they'd probably wrecked their backs by then - and then do some other job to 60 if hadnt got pension - but since started training at 18 would have 40 years work by 58?

No one knows, but many characters have left with less of an exit

Didn't she move into a little house with Miss Higgins a few years ago?

I was actually quite pleased they did not keep the baby (although it was a very sad story line) as the programme too often ends up with some sugar coated happily ever after 2024 lack of reality.

On pensions I have a letter between my grandfather and siblings in the 1930 - there were 10 siblings and they were going on about how good the pension was of the sister who had been a nurse/midwife for over 30 years at a hospital in Wapping (as the rest of the family had just about no pension at all of any kind) so it wasn't that bad even then and that was before the NHS existed.

Didn't she win £5000 on the pools? I seem to remember her buying a new car. A lot of money in 1960-something.

Didn’t she go travelling too?

Did she go to Spain? Did she learn some Spanish? Have I mixed her up with a completely different programme?

It's less that the stuff itself is stupid, it's more that it takes up the place of things that might be slightly more important to know, like the other night when I couldn't find the light switch in my hall because for about a minute I'd completely forgotten where it was. Mostly I do love having a head full of facts that can suddenly pop into my head as if from nowhere and lead to people saying "How on earth do you know that!"