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Telly addicts

Call the midwife

998 replies

NimbleHiker · 18/12/2025 16:40

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.

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Thread gallery
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CaptainMyCaptain · 01/01/2026 16:31

MikeRafone · 01/01/2026 16:12

I think he was born at Dulwich hospital

Ignore that.

LIZS · 01/01/2026 17:45

The second part was an improvement on the first (the Dr T/Fred kidnap aside) but really only because there were so many loose ends to tie up. No storyline felt fully realised and some just ridiculous (like leaving Nonnatus house unmanned long enough to have an overnight party with noone on call).

NimbleHiker · 02/01/2026 13:33

Lalgarh · 29/12/2025 12:10

Have the original stories run out?

I always wondered whether the woman in the 1st series who was Spanish and had 14 children had either recognised herself or her children had.

They had a gloss of heartwarming narrative over it but it was truly grim AF

The original stories ran out at the end of series 2.

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DrinkReprehensibly · 03/01/2026 13:01

I am just watching the second half and I find the dialogue so strange compared to other dramas. Although it's obviously adult storylines, the dialogue is written very much like a children's programme somehow. Lots of characters stating the obvious and announcing their feelings in order to ram things home e.g. when the Turners were searching for May's mother, the doc just plainly states directly to Sheila "We have no apartment number or even a floor number." Sheila obviously already knows that and so it feels like he may as well gave turned and said it directly into the camera if you can't be arsed working it into the dialogue in a natural way.

Then later, "I want to find her, but I don't want to find her here." Do people come out with that kind of stuff? It made me think of the fake talking heads bits they do in The Office where they reflect later on what happened "I thought to myself, I desperately want to find her, but I pray to god it isn't here as the conditions were so desperate". Is this what they call exposition? There just seems to be so much of it in the actual script rather than depicting it through drama and natural dialogue. I feel like I'm watching a child's description of what is supposed to happen. This person said this, then this happened, then this... It's hard to explain as I'm no expert in this stuff but it's less enjoyable than it used to be and takes me out of the story.

Theunamedcat · 03/01/2026 16:36

I want to find her i dont want to find her here is fairly realistic for some people what's not realistic is leaving her with the baby she abandoned just how is she supposed to raise this one? Are they sending the boy back home to live with his dad is he being taken in by them too like everyone else seems to be? I spent most the episodes confused

Winterwalks90 · 03/01/2026 19:45

Right. I could not get away with the Christmas special . The Liverpool accent !!! Wtaf 😂 felt like I was watching one of daughters daft shows on YouTube

CornishYarg · 06/01/2026 00:12

Finally watched ep 2. When Violet said to her son something like "we'll talk properly tomorrow", I was convinced one of them was going to die before they got chance!

As well as the earlier series having grittier storyline, they also centred on Nonnatus House much more which I think worked better. Series 1 basically just had the nuns and the younger nurses, plus a few peripheral male characters. There were several scenes of the nurses in their (shared) bedrooms chatting, getting ready to go out etc. The nuns were shown in the chapel and there were lots of communal scenes at meals or in the sitting room. The weekly clinic also featured heavily, and discussions about who was on call. You really got a sense of what the midwives' day-to-day life was like.

I don't feel like that's the case now. What does a typical day look like for Joyce, for example? Nonnatus House and its midwives are less prominent now, in order to accommodate lots of other locations and characters.

PrimalScreaming · 08/01/2026 21:58

Can I just say, apropos nothing... I've just watched the 2015 Christmas Special. It's the one where Sister Monica Joan goes AWOL. When sister Evangelina references her to Sgt. Noakes, she says (and I quote) 'She's nearly 90!'
So even with my very poor maths we can all work out how old she is supposed to be now...

SnoopyPajamas · 08/01/2026 23:17

DrinkReprehensibly · 03/01/2026 13:01

I am just watching the second half and I find the dialogue so strange compared to other dramas. Although it's obviously adult storylines, the dialogue is written very much like a children's programme somehow. Lots of characters stating the obvious and announcing their feelings in order to ram things home e.g. when the Turners were searching for May's mother, the doc just plainly states directly to Sheila "We have no apartment number or even a floor number." Sheila obviously already knows that and so it feels like he may as well gave turned and said it directly into the camera if you can't be arsed working it into the dialogue in a natural way.

Then later, "I want to find her, but I don't want to find her here." Do people come out with that kind of stuff? It made me think of the fake talking heads bits they do in The Office where they reflect later on what happened "I thought to myself, I desperately want to find her, but I pray to god it isn't here as the conditions were so desperate". Is this what they call exposition? There just seems to be so much of it in the actual script rather than depicting it through drama and natural dialogue. I feel like I'm watching a child's description of what is supposed to happen. This person said this, then this happened, then this... It's hard to explain as I'm no expert in this stuff but it's less enjoyable than it used to be and takes me out of the story.

I stopped watching a few years ago and this was a major factor. There's a lot of crap writing in television these days. Everything's been massively dumbed-down. There seems to be an assumption that the audience is a bit thick and we're probably on our phones anyway, so it's best to spoon feed us information.

Don't show something onscreen - make your characters say it out loud, just in case the viewer wasn't looking! Why show the house number for No. 26, when you could just have a character randomly announce that they live at No. 26?

Don't write a period drama and have people actually behave as they would have done in the past! Viewers will be too dumb to understand the historical context, you see, and might just hate your characters instead. And we can't have that. No, it's better to just make every character think and act like they stepped straight out of the modern day.

Oh, and ambiguity is death. Your audience should never be asked to grapple with difficult questions. Don't ever let them decide for themselves if Character A or Character B is in the right in an argument. No. Character C must always come along and tell you Character A was right. And then Character B must make a groveling apology, following the same script, to really hammer home the point.

It's all so painfully childish.

OhDear111 · 08/01/2026 23:26

@MikeRafone Dm was a midwife in London right at the end of WW2. They did collect women by ambulance and almost certainly did in 1940 but usually for difficult births. Most were at home.

Youngeryoungsuddenly · 09/01/2026 05:13

I loved the very first series of this but I’ve gradually lost interest. I can’t stand how much air time the Turners get.

MikeRafone · 09/01/2026 07:26

OhDear111 · 08/01/2026 23:26

@MikeRafone Dm was a midwife in London right at the end of WW2. They did collect women by ambulance and almost certainly did in 1940 but usually for difficult births. Most were at home.

my gran told me he was easy, so whether it was don’t know why he was birn in hospital I don’t know? Her father was a porter at the hospital and he was her first visitor

RitaIncognita · 09/01/2026 15:27

PrimalScreaming · 08/01/2026 21:58

Can I just say, apropos nothing... I've just watched the 2015 Christmas Special. It's the one where Sister Monica Joan goes AWOL. When sister Evangelina references her to Sgt. Noakes, she says (and I quote) 'She's nearly 90!'
So even with my very poor maths we can all work out how old she is supposed to be now...

I know. And her mental acuity seems to improve with each added year. But I love the character and Judy Parfitt, who herself is 90 and still going strong.

TheNightingalesStarling · 09/01/2026 15:30

More realistic would have been Sister Julienne becoming the Wise Owl character, after the peaceful death of Sister Monica Joan, with someone like Sister Hilda taking over the running of Nonnatus House.

But I love the character of Suster Monica Joan.

RitaIncognita · 09/01/2026 15:33

Youngeryoungsuddenly · 09/01/2026 05:13

I loved the very first series of this but I’ve gradually lost interest. I can’t stand how much air time the Turners get.

Yes yes to too much Turner. This becomes especially obvious when binge-watching, which I have been doing from the beginning for the past several days.

For a show that is supposed to be about women, you'd get falling down drunk if you played a drinking game in which you chugged every time someone said "Doctor" in reference to Turner.

DarkEyedSailor · 09/01/2026 15:51

It's written by the wife of the actor who plays Dr Turner's isn't it?

NimbleHiker · 09/01/2026 16:05

DarkEyedSailor · 09/01/2026 15:51

It's written by the wife of the actor who plays Dr Turner's isn't it?

Yes.

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NimbleHiker · 09/01/2026 16:12

RitaIncognita · 09/01/2026 15:33

Yes yes to too much Turner. This becomes especially obvious when binge-watching, which I have been doing from the beginning for the past several days.

For a show that is supposed to be about women, you'd get falling down drunk if you played a drinking game in which you chugged every time someone said "Doctor" in reference to Turner.

Exactly. Doctor didn't annoy me early on. I hardly even noticed him in series 1. Now i feel as though he is going to deliver every baby single handed.

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NewAgeNewMe · 09/01/2026 18:02

I sometimes think it should be renamed to Call the Doctor

NimbleHiker · 11/01/2026 14:55

EchoedSilence · 26/12/2025 21:36

It was like a fever dream. I don't think I liked it much and I usually love it.

I tried rewatching it last night and i still found it weird.

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NimbleHiker · 11/01/2026 15:00

I am having a bingo card tonight lol. I wonder how many times doctor Turner will be right about something.

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Needmorelego · 11/01/2026 15:16

@NimbleHiker ha ha 🤣 I was literally thinking the same thing.
It should include Shelagh saying "Oh Patrick"
May and Angela wearing matching outfits.
Sister Monica Joan saying something profound.
Sister Juliene looking like a confused bunny (she does.... I'm sorry).
Trixie says "Sweetie".
What else.....

notimpressedatm · 11/01/2026 15:18

Needmorelego · 11/01/2026 15:16

@NimbleHiker ha ha 🤣 I was literally thinking the same thing.
It should include Shelagh saying "Oh Patrick"
May and Angela wearing matching outfits.
Sister Monica Joan saying something profound.
Sister Juliene looking like a confused bunny (she does.... I'm sorry).
Trixie says "Sweetie".
What else.....

The Turner kids saying ‘Yay!’

TheNightingalesStarling · 11/01/2026 15:21

Nonnatus House having a crisis
Nurse Cranes Roladex
Trixie being out of touch
Rosalind being soppy
Heartwarming scene with Sister MJ and young nun

Needmorelego · 11/01/2026 15:22

notimpressedatm · 11/01/2026 15:18

The Turner kids saying ‘Yay!’

Plus Teddy rolling his eyes at something and looking bored 🤣
Poor lad.