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.

Though I did snigger childishly at “I felt something, inside, and it’s harder than I expected”.

How come the Turners, who both left their kids without a backward glance for weeks in December, now can’t spare either of them to accompany a desperately ill child back home to his mother?
Given there was chickenpox going round, and nobody was bothering to keep those infected away from infecting others, I was half expecting Christopher to catch it.

Was the chicken pox story thrown in to encourage uptake of the chicken pox vaccine?

In those days it was thought better to let children catch chicken pox while they were young so give them immunity*. Some people even had chicken pox parties to ensure the spread.

• because it is worse getting chicken pox as an adult ditto mumps and rubella before the vaccine.

I get that people wanted to catch chickenpox early, but given how much was made of the danger of newborns catching it, they should have recognised that it wouldn’t be great for Christopher to get it either. His immune system would be virtually non-existent from the chemo and he was already very ill anyway.

Is it just me or was there a frisson between Dr Turner and police detective leading hunt for baby? Difficult to read Dr T sometimes because of his exaggerated facial expressions!

It’s now included in the 1 year MMR jabs (and a booster in the MMR second dose at 18 months) but I did wonder this too given how some people are now not vaccinating their children/babies

Hmm. I think a storyline where Dr Turner turned out to be a closeted gay would be a step too far. I thought they just got on well working towards a common purpose in their different professions.

how do they afford to just grab a plane to HK?

Its the same plane that Trixie uses to pop to Newyork and back, thats completely free and takes 5 minutes

I think she was just confiding in Geoffrey, I don’t think they will have a Lavendar marriage. Why would he? That usually happened when being gay was illegal, and homosexuality was already decriminalised in 1967.

True, but it would be an interesting storyline just for Dr T's tortured facial expressions! Maybe I'm getting carried away by the homoeroticism in The Night Manager 😁

I wondered about that. Oncology children coming into contact with chickenpox is a massive issue. Straight into hospital for IV Acyclovir. At least they do that now. Not sure about 1971. Also not sure how an army hospital would suddenly be able to administer chemotherapy to a very small child. When they have no experience of that.

Exactly. It felt too convenient.

Thats true but it was very much frowned upon. Homophobia didnt just disappear when it became legal

Although Wilms tumours are one of the most easily treated childhood cancers. It still requires a lot of specialist management next and renal input to manage the high blood pressure etc. in 1971 I doubt many hospitals would have been able to manage it. Especially not army hospitals

The Christopher storyline was random even for CTM, the poor baby was taken away from him, sent to a different country with people he didn’t know speaking a language he wouldn’t understand to undergo a horrible treatment. His poor sister gets to meet her brother but also must realise that her mum has cared for kept other children.

If the Turners were as saintly as they make out they’d have found a way to bring Esther to the UK with her children not just keep taking her kids off her.

The whole situation is completely unbelievable.

What upsets me the most is my thinking
.
What do they do to the poor children to make them cry so much 😟.

That little baby had red bits all over the face and eyes and poor little Christopher was sobbing when in the nurses arms 💔.

Or was little Colin a very good prosthetic doll ?

Little Christopher 's face at the end was heartbreaking .

I agree that the Christopher storyline is random. How could a long journey back to yet another unknown hospital environment be in his best interests? Also, I want to know more about Sister Veronika’s interesting uncontrollable broodiness story not send her off to look after Christopher and potentially disappear or come back having
conveniently adopted him.

Also, Christopher is two and has been in the UK since Christmas, it feels really bizarre for them to wait until what looks like early summer to decide he is unsettled and needs to go back home. Would he even remember Esther? And why not bring Esther and her baby over, surely they could find room at Nonnatus house for a few more people. Rosalind can bunk up with Cyril now she is on the pill, and Joyce could get temporary hospital accommodation so she can get in an hour early every day.

Also how on earth did Dr Turner find the time this episode to be so involved in the sad Christopher, stone baby and missing baby storylines?

It’s amazing the way some of the characters have just not aged over 20 years.

Especially the already ancient ones.

You can suspend your disbelief to a degree…!

The whole reason that May is with the Turners is because Esther’s life was so chaotic and she was unreliable as a mother. She had a stable job as a nanny to a wealthy family and was still deemed unsuitable to care for May. So how come she’s suddenly deemed capable because the Cormorant is in jail? Especially to look after a very sick child.

But does May know it's her brother?

Thought she got sacked as a nanny when the family found out about her past and May so fell back into her dissolute lifestyle in HK and they could not send May back to her so the Turners adopted her,

@LIZS oh yes. I think you are right.i presume that May knows it’s her brother but did they actually tell her.

I think May knows he is her brother.
That is why we had all the scenes with May giving him an extra hug and running after the car.

Agree that the Turners should have got the mother over here somehow.

They need a nanny/housekeeper /live in person.

It would have worked really well .

I am beginning to think that doctor Turner has a time machine. I doubt that Christopher will remember Esther. The Christopher storyline felt pointless.