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.

Re a prequel back to earlier days of some of the older Nuns .

It reminds Me of the first EastEnders Christmas special ( I think it was the first Year) they showed, though they still had an episode in the present day sort of thing, and they called it Civvy Street.
It was of just post WWII Walford, with a young and flighty Ethel Skinner, and a young Dot and Lou. I think that Lou's not seen in the normal EE husband, Albert, was in it as well. As was Reg Cox, a younger Reg Cox of course
It was good and I think some kind of CTM prequel would be good too. Even as a one off.

Makes me think it was the first Christmas it aired as it was Reg's body found in the very first episode.

I remember them recasting Pippa on Home and Away and Lucy on Neighbours I think it was. Who did they recast on Roseanne?

Becky, the blonde daughter. She changed back to the original at some point too I think.

Thanks. I'd forgotten that. I used to like Roseanne.

Yes, when the original Becky returned the Roseanne character said, “where the hell have you been?”

Always remember that, even though it was decades ago.

I liked the OFAH prequel - Rock and Chips. Nicholas Lyndhurst played Rodney’s dad, Freddie the Frog. Prequels can be great, done well.

Lucy in Neighbours was recast a couple of times I seem to recall.

The first change with Lucy was a really tall girl - so it was you’ve grown! Kill Lucille off or recast her! Divorce pastor in 1970’s? Not very likely,

They could do a one off prequel as a flashback episode from Sr MJ's deathbed as she recalls her early adventures in midwifery (like the Victorian Christmas episode but staying in the past all episode)

The series seems to have got its mojo back - with more tunes from the era rather than just mawkish strings in the background and some hard hitting storylines without happy-ever-after outcomes. It's good to have a reminder that the good old days also included inoperable cancer, iron lungs and children in foster care if you had nowhere to live. They were never going to recast Lucille because I suspect the next issue will be the strains of a mixed race relationship in 1969 (already touched on over the years, but soon to be properly explored with Cyril and Rosalind at the heart of the story). It was good to see the nuns worshipping in the last episode. Long overdue. I think there’s been too heavy a focus on Trixie and her husband in the last couple of years - I completely agree with this. I love CTM and I'm happy to see it pulling back from from the twee sentimentality it was starting to espouse in the last couple of years.

I think they panicked a bit when the Lucille actress quit, as they had plans for Cyril and didn't think it through. They wanted to show the changing diversity of the area, and social problems.

Despite everything I really enjoy CTM still.

I definitely prefer this series to the last, much more gritty. I remember Leonard Cheshire homes, my mum knew someone in one.

Another one here who thinks this series is back on track. CTM is much better when it focusses on the work and the social situation that work is taking place in - and represents both in a more realistic manner.

Less midwife personal drama, more seeing how they help (and sometimes cannot help) those in the community.

Does anyone remember the series two episode with the furious, derelict elderly woman whose children all died in the workhouse? There was a scene where young Jenny and I think sister evangelina bathed her in a tin tub in her festering slum to that haunting Christmas carol, ‘Oh come, oh come Emmanuel’. A very moving scene of love and humility in a wonderful episode. Young Jenny found where her children had been buried and took her to see for herself.

I vividly remember that one, especially when she put her hands in the snow over her childrens graves. I'm actually snivelling now even thinking about it.

IIRC, that was the Christmas Special which also had the teenager giving birth alone in an abandoned warehouse? I think her parents initally wanted the baby adopted when they found out but Came Round.

Sniff.

Series 1, the Spanish woman on her 24th baby....
That would be a great follow up, she must have had dozens of grandchildren!

I really hope that Rosalind and Cyril get together and get married. An interracial marriage would have been very brave back then. I just hope that CTM go for realism if they use that storyline, and not seen through 2025 eyes.

The real-life Warrens (the Websters) had 19 children I think. The family confirmed on Facebook ages ago that it was based on them iirc. They both reached old age. I think the wife’s name was Anna. Seemed to have been a happy marriage from what I remember reading.

Cyril and Lucille took ages to get together IIRC so doing the same with Rosalind is a bit tedious. I would have preferred they had recast Lucille and had them live happily ever after.

I haven't seen the Lucille actress in anything else though, so I wonder why she quit.

I think she negotiated to miss a series for a stage show then decided not to return which was why her initial exit was open ended but they have fudged how they have handled it. Lucille would not have asked for a divorce or walked away from her marriage.

A mixed race relationship story line could have been done with a character other than Cyril or with him as a widower but I don't buy their divorce. I could see it approaching but it is totally wrong for Cyril/ Lucille it's totally at odds with their characters.

Didn't Reggie get married, where's his wife?

This series is so much better than the last couple but I can't put my finger on the reason. I was glad to see Sister Julienne made good use of in Sunday's episode. I think she has been under utilised in the last few series.

No- you must have dreamed that!

It's viewing rates have dropped over the years but that's in line with viewing rates on terrestrial television dropping. It is always one of the most popular Christmas specials/shows and last Christmas came in fourth after Gavin and Stacy, Wallace and Gromit and The King's Speech. The royal speech always does well in part because it's on so many channels and people are weird.

CTM is regularly one of the most watched shows each year along with Death in Paradise which tells me that people want something comfortable to watch and while there are complaints - for both shows - about content, writing, acting, etc, it doesn't affect their popularity. I get it. I love really high quality television but I also like curling up in front of television shows full of characters I've grown to love and to just not care that it's not the most excellent show ever produced but I know what I'm going to get and I'm more than happy to accept that.

At some point in the not to distant future CTM will come to an end and I'll definitely miss it. I really hope they do a prequel and I'd love it to be almost totally about the nuns. We would see them before they become nuns, becoming nuns and then all the births just like in CTM but more nun focused. I like the whole nun thing.

I feel with Lucille's exit they the writers were so fixated by Trixie's DH leaving that they sort of forgot about Lucille leaving too.