Call the midwife part 2

[TwinklyFawn]

I know that my first thread isn't full yet. I just wanted to create the second thread before i forgot.

I had to laugh when Dr Turner mentioned the drugs could have been 'dodgy gear' 😁

They were definitely prescribing methadone by 1970 and it's likely they'd have gone through a local GP at first. Methadone is a really shit way of getting off heroin but they've kept trying to make it work.

@witchycat2

Ella Bruccoleri played a nun in The Last Kingdom too

Miss Higgins is in 'Am I Being Unreasonable' at the moment.

Definitely. It's been the best series for a while.

I'd never have recognised her from that.

I had a feeling they'd find the couple like that. Very sad but true to life.

And she's very funny in it.

Methadone definitely prescribed by GPs by 1970s. To be honest CTM make a point of consulting medical journals of the time so that they incorporate epidemic of certain diseases in the years they really did occur and only use medicines they were legally allowed to do so in the relevant year.

Completely separately I am delighted to see from a listings magazine that Fenella Woolgar is reprieving her role as Sister Hilda next week. I assume they could not get Miriam Margolyse back so need someone to represent the wider order when Sister Catherine makes her first vows in the next episode. I always liked Sister Hilda and thought she was under used.

I suspect they know there has been criticism of the writing so I think that new writers and possibly Heidi taking a firmer control of the editing is making for the better output. I don't entirely agree with those who say it's all been about the love lives of the nurses in the past few years. They clearly didn't watch the early series with Chummy and Peter being the ongoing love interest. Plus Jenny always having a love interest ie the married Gerald who we never saw, Jimmy, Alec, and finally Philip all in just 3 seasons. Trixie had Tom and Christopher and they split in season 6!, There has always been the private lives of the nurses, it's not just the last few years.

I can't like Rosalind- I don't know why. I find her irritating in every way. I am not at all convinced by her and Cyril.

I wish Sister Frances had stayed- she was excellent.

Many, if not all, if the characters are cliches now- but Trixie 'Lady Aylward' most of all.

Still love it though.

Rosalind is annoying,
asking simple questions

I thought it was good last night, the drug addicts were sadly realistic (although in rl I think the toddler would have died as well unless the neighbour heard her screaming 😢)

By the 70s would mixed race relationships still be raising eyebrows in London? I would have hoped with London being so multi cultural it wouldn't have been so unusual?

The controlling mother was awful, I've known women like this and the sons usually stay rather than escape leave. My friends brothers still live at home with their mum and they're in their 60s now! Neither married or had kids as their mum wouldn't like it. Really weird and the mum is unbelievably selfish.

@Girliefriendlikespuppies mixed relationships were very much still seen as a problem when I was a teenager in the early eighties and it would have been worse at the time shown in the series. London was multicultural but racism was rife. White women and girls who dated black men were at the very least looked down upon. It was all pretty ugly.

I meant to say last night that I was glad Cyril managed to stop Rosalind in her tracks. I would have been the same, wanting to tell them what I thought of them but it's the sort of situation where it's the man who will suffer because the other blokes will want to beat him up for shits and giggles and just because they could. Or, if they were particularly vicious they'd round on her in a maybe we're going to commit some sort of sexual assault which he'd have to prevent and get beaten up. The police would side with the white boys. It's horrible but you have to ignore that bullshit because it can end horribly badly. She's incredibly naive and she's going to have to do a lot of growing up very quickly.

perhaps the writers are choosing for her to be so naïve as part of the mixed race story

By the 70s would mixed race relationships still be raising eyebrows in London? I would have hoped with London being so multi cultural it wouldn't have been so unusual?
There would have been a lot of disapproval and abuse, I can personally vouch for that.

I really hope they don't have something nasty happen to Cyril and Rosalind. I know mixed race couples went through hell but Cyril deserves some happiness.
Ds1's gf is mixed race. She was born in the year 2000. When her dm announced she was pregnant, her white parents said they didn't want anything to do with a black child 😡. She was actually born with fair skin, similar to Meghan Markle, so they decided they would have a relationship with her. I know I must sound naive but it blows my mind that people still think like that.

I know a few mixed race couples in their 60/70s now so would have been getting together in the 1970/80s.

It's really depressing that it would have been an issue especially in the big cities.

I hope they make a go of it and that Cyril doesn't get beaten up or anything.

I really thought the husband would talk his wife out of taking the drugs. Wasn't expecting that plot twist.

The Madness song 'Embarrassment' is about mixed race couples. One of the band had a sister who went out with a black boy and her family were ashamed of her.

My mother had two week in a nursing home after all of her births!

I guess if you are an addict, there's only so much willpower you can have. It was a really sad storyline.

I had my daughter in Guy's Hospital in 1980. It was standard to be kept in for 10 days for a first baby.

Agree this series is much better than the last few, to the point I even felt indulgent of a Turner group "Yay!"

I think the addition of another doctor, possibly a woman (there were plenty about at this point) would be good, though.

Was it on on Sunday? I can't see it on catch up! Series 14 and only 6 episodes?