Call the midwife

[NimbleHiker]

The Christmas special of call the midwife is on bbc 1 in 2 parts again. The first part is on at 20:15 on Christmas day and the second part is on at 20:30 on boxing day. I am not a fan of the Christmas special been in 2 parts. I wonder how doctor Turner and his simpering wife will save the world.

I thought this, im AB+ and always thought i could receive any blood group as a transfusion, and that O- can be given to anyone.
Maybe they didnt know back then? Or maybe it was just to pad out the story a bit

I'm just thinking about the trailer for next week, especially the missing baby story line, and have had a bit of a disturbing thought about Sister Veronica. Is anyone else thinking along the same lines?

I feel like Sister Veronica is being handed Christopher on a platter!

I don't see her as a baby stealer.

And we had that storyline back in the day with baby Kathleen being taken from her mum (Mary?) so she in turn stole a baby

In the Year 2000, my Eldest 2 children's school planted a Time Capsule .
The old building was demolished and when the new one was completed and where they planted a tree, they put the time capsule
It was a Greenwich School and pretty sure that the fact the O2 was built was included in the capsule , they also all got commermaritive coins (all children in Greenwich Borough schools) and pretty sure that one of those went in too.

Trixie’s breach of confidentiality was appalling. She should be hauled over the coals for that.

At the end it seemed she was looking forward to having the baby, as she would be safe.

She also seemed very religious so it probably having an abortion wouldn't have been something she would consider.

I also was nine when that happened and clearly remember the episode when they buried the capsule. However, I didn't do one and don't know anyone else who did.

This episode made it look like everyone went mad for time capsules. Not how I remember it.

Can't see Sister V adopting Christopher, surely the doc and his wife would be desperate to keep him?

I agree, if there’s any reason he can’t go back to Hong Kong the Turners would surely adopt him for May’s sake

I think Sister Veronica is going to leave the sisterhood and adopt a baby with Geoffrey

I agree.

Could single women adopt children alone? And surely they wouldn’t put an adoption on hold for her to sort out leaving the order and marrying Geoffrey.

Would be awkward for the turners to adopt him too, I don’t think they’ve told May he’s her brother. I think ultimately he will go back to Hong Kong or die from cancer.

I'm starting to get really fed up with Call the Midwife. I clearly remember 1971 and the attitudes of people were nothing like they are now. Nobody would have been happy with Cyril and whatserface in a relationship. His congregation would have been as outraged as her colleagues.Somebody would have taken him aside for "a quiet word" at least.

This week's "unmarried mother" also wouldn't have been proudly asserting "it's Miss". Have people forgotten that the Magdalen laundries weren't only in Ireland? Our nuns are always portrayed as gentle and loving, but many people had a hugely different experience with them.

I know people like the programme for its Sunday night fluffiness but can they please employ a scriptwriter who was either alive in the 70s or is capable of research and doesn't assume that the 70s were the same as now but with different clothes.

Agree, I was young then. Being pregnant when single was something you didn’t boast about. If you didn’t have a termination, it’s likely you were sent to live with some relative somewhere, and mixed relationships weren’t embraced at that time. Thankfully, things have changed a lot.,

Yes it really annoys me too. It's so smug and fake.
The early series were better but even then they sanitised parts and made happy endings where there weren't any (Kirsty on the boat, the woman who tried different ways to abort the baby eg) and it just gets very patronising.

Absolutely. I was born in 1970. I can remember when at secondary school in the mid 1980s one of the teachers was a 'Miss', single & pregnant and it was quite a scandal even then!

@WeaselsRising you do have to remember these are Church of England nuns rather than Catholic.
It seems they weren't as strict (and horrible) as some of the RC nuns.

I think they have told her because this week they said when he’s better he’s going “back to Mummy” rather than “to his Mummy”, and I’m sure they mentioned he’s May’s brother in a previous episode.

Felt a bit sorry for May really, if he does go back to HK when is she realistically going to see him again

Single women adopting- probably not unless it was a family member taking in a child kind of situation. She would probably need the marriage to make it possible and acceptable to society.

I remember even as late as the early 90s being a single unmarried mother was not exactly a scandal but definitely disapproved of.

I agree but I think this is a problem across lots of historical fiction. There is almost never a situation where there is a nice or sympathetic character who also holds racist or homophobic views. It seems very difficult to us now but those views were ordinary then. People would judge a mixed relationship and certainly an unmarried mother.

There was a girl at my school. Mum single parent. Some of the girls weren’t allowed to be friends with her. Goodness knows what their parents what would happen to them.

In 85, at university one of my housemates thought maybe pregnant. 2 week wait for results with her and boyfriend planning to get married and he would do the ‘right things’ by her.

Attitudes like that were more mainstream than CTM would have us believe!

Interesting to hear you say that. I said before that single mothers would have been judged in the 90s. I’ve said that before and was told I was wrong.

The adviser to CTM needs to speak to people who were young in that era!

I think in the nineties attitudes were different and more accepting to teen/single mums, mixed and gay relationships

I remember the scandal in 1974 when Helen Morgan resigned as Miss World because the papers found out she was an unmarried mother. And even in the 80s there was a huge fuss over Janet Ellis being a single mother when she was on Blue Peter though I don’t think she left because of that.

I think the key thing that they are glossing over re Cyril is that, unless I've missed something, he is still married to Lucille. There is just no way that a married Pastor would be openly having a relationship with another woman whatever her colour. Not and stay in the Church anyway. And if his beliefs are genuine, as portrayed, I doubt divorce would be acceptable to him either. Unless Lucille had died I don't think he would have started another relationship. I think the writers expect us to forget she ever existed. Unless there's a plan to have her return and cause a huge scandal I don't know why they haven't had some kind of tragic off screen accident occur as it is the only way the current storyline could be remotely realistic.