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 like the bit at the end but the plots are always a bit woke left. In the books i remember the story of the man who brought a Spanish girl of about 12 back from the Spanish civil war - rescued her and they got together and she got pregnant and without asking her age the local priest married them as that was the safest course in those days. The midwife ended up delivering up to something like their 22nd child as they started having their children at 14. (They were very happy and she was a good mother in the book). I don't think they would portray that kind of real life story in the same was today in the film.

@Xenia that storyline was actually used way back when Jenny Lee was still in CTM.
It was during the fatal smog of 1952 that the mother fell and knocked her head in the garden, then went into labour and had a 28 weeker at home, who was reared successfully, without going to a NICU.

The story of Conchita the Spaniard is one of the ones that stuck in my mind. I recall reading an interview with one of her real-life DCs years ago also.

The other one was the incest/workhouse storyline. This was interesting because my mum (born 1936) was at school with a boy with growth and learning issues, who had been born to a sibling couple. My mum didn’t know the circs.

There are several other stories I recall, all from pre-2019 pretty much. The more recent seasons have only provided the train crash and Miss Higgins’ child as storylines that have stuck with me.

I thought they did brilliantly to film/air a 2020 Christmas special and 2021 season, in fairness. Chapeau to all concerned for that.

I remember an episode (memorable for Pam Ferris climbing up the side of a boat) where a Russian (?) ship captain of a vessel moored at the East End docks was basically pimping his daughter to the entire crew, and she was heavily pregnant. Man, that was grim. I wonder if it was based on a true story?

It was. Jennifer Worth said that she based all the books on true stories.

Even though she was actually only at the fictional Nonnatus House for a few weeks, not the several years suggested in the TV series.

https://images.app.goo.gl/AtF4cJgCapx8K2YH7

This is the real "Nonnatus"
It's St. Frideswide's Mission House.

And this is the book which Jenny's sister wrote about them both.
Many say it's very bitchy. It does point out that Jenny was only at the fictional Nonnatus House for three months.......

The Midwife's Sister: The Story of Call The Midwife's Jennifer Worth by her sister Christine https://amzn.eu/d/7GvdjKf

Im sure in previous series that the nuns have objected to having men stay at Nonatus House, they don’t seem to mind Trixie’s brother staying now

Yes that ship story was awful. I recall it.

I also remember the shaven-headed children going off to Australia. Supposedly for exciting new lives, but many ended up as little more than servants. Can’t recall if they were in Jenny’s book.

Not all Jennifer Worth's stories were 100% true as they actually happened - some were loosely 'based on' true events and others were told through the eyes of other characters (based on things she had heard or stories mixed together) and embellished to create a good plot. She also tidied up loose ends with conclusions to stories when she probably didn't know what actually happened.

In the book this is told through the eyes of another midwife - I think Chummy? And even worse than the tv series as she was the 'ship's woman' since a young teenager and even raped by her own father. I think this is one of the stories that was exaggerated especially as it was a secondhand story.

I still find it difficult to believe that the nuns would have accepted the ministry of Cyril as a pastor. They were high Anglican.

They wouldn't! But only people who are familiar with the various Christian denominations would know that.

I always find myself thinking back to this bit of CtM.

As the family were so exceptional I wondered whether there would be people who knew them still alive and watching the programme; Conchita was only having her babies 50-60 years previously. Does Worth cross a
confidentially rule in this?

I also have doubts that they would have let Nancy (an unmarried mother) live there too.

I've often wondered this with programmes based in reality.

Edited to add did the TV writers base her on the Radfords? Pregnant at 14 to an older man had 22 children...

My late partners DD messaged me on Saturday to say she had been in a Suffolk seaside town and she was fairly sure.the actress who plays Miss.Higgins has walked past and smiled broadly at my honarary granddaughter! Fast-forward to today and I was round at Mr and Mrs NDN who had been in the same town on Saturday.. They reported that Miss Higgins had walked.past them and said a very hearty "Good Morning!" to them!! 💕 💕 💕

Miss Higgins (Georgie Glen) looked so familiar even before CTM. I looked at her CV just now and she's been in EVERYTHING! Doctors, Little Britain, Heartbeat, the Crown, Harry Enfield, Waterloo Road, Holby City, Poirot. Umpteen films too.

Dr. Finlay, too!

She was reading a Miss Marple story on Radio 4 yesterday afternoon. I recognised her voice.

That stuck with me too not least because they had been together all those years and she didn't speak English and he didn't speak Spanish. I thought it was more recent than pre-2019 but my memory is appalling so maybe I'm remembering better episodes as more recent in order to convince myself that it's still really good rather than a little to heavy on the saccharine.

But the series creator/executive producer regularly attends a high Anglican Church… at least, I think so.

In an earlier series didn’t they (have to) put up a vicar/curate at Nonnatus House for some time, who “kindly” thanked them by doing something tedious, like preaching long sermons at them?

Yes wasn't he the man who married Jenny and then went on to assault Faith in Casualty?

That wasn’t the one I was thinking of, but there might well have been more than one.

The one I had in mind was there temporarily, before he went abroad on A Mission, or something similar. But it was years ago, so I am hazy on the details.