call the midwife part 2

[NimbleHiker]

I am setting up the next thread before i forget.

There were a couple of gay pubs, in the 80’s, in London, me and my friends would go to, if we wanted to have drinks, without being hit upon. I’m sure there were more but this was near one of them.

I am not sure that woukd have been allowed then.

Actually I have personal experience of this. I am childless not by choice and it honestly never bothered me until I began menopause. One of the first symptoms I had was an intense sadness about being childless. It came completely out of the blue and my brain knew that I didn't actually want a child which made it easier to get through it because I knew it was my hormones talking and not the real me. I did "just get over it" but it took a few months. It strikes me that it was one of the things that Geoff recognised in Beryl. Right from when Geoff first appeared I felt there was a sadness in him...a bit "Sing if you're glad to be gay" No children and family life for him.

That may have been one kind of meeting place but honestly they weren't all secret and hidden. I guess if you were new to an area and wanted to meet people then you'd need to ask but honestly, at least where I lived, people knew and by and large were not bothered. IIRC HIV did change things, at least in the general zeitgeist, because it was SO infectious. We did mandatory CPR training in the NHS and, at the time, mouth to mouth resuscitation was a professional requirement if it was needed. The official line was that we could be protected from saliva exchange and therefore HIV threat, by using a single use face shield and we were all given one to put on a keyring. By the following year, a person had been infected with HIV through giving CPR using a face shield and we were told it was no longer mandatory and we were entitled to risk assess and make a personal decision. Terrible times, sad times.

I was watching an older film last night on Amazon and noticed an actor who reminded me of Dr. Turner (but in my opinion somewhat better looking, sorry Stephen). I googled and it was Paul McGann. I didn't realize that there is a whole lot of them.

I have said it before but I found the Beryl storyline silly.

She would have known she was close to menopause and how unlikely it would be to conceive at her age, let alone the fact she had to find a man and marry first for that to happen. It was also seen as a HUGE risk to be an older mother in the 1970s anyway - my grandmother had her sixth (and last) baby at 45 and the doctor was very worried about it (despite having had 5 healthy babies before) and practically begged her not to have anymore afterwards.

As a midwife, Beryl would have known about 1. The menopause and 2. The risk of having a baby at her ‘advanced’ age even if she could conceive.

It would have been better or more realistic if she had decided she wanted to adopt from the start, rather than all the silliness with Geoffrey.

It’s like they wanted us to suspend any rational thought this series. Beryl (a midwife), oblivious to menopause. Rosalind (also a midwife) with no knowledge about the risks of the pill.

But the silliness doesn’t end there. Trixie has completely forgotten she has a husband and child across the Atlantic.

The family have with the heating on full blast in August and Dr T didn’t think it was odd.

Plus the pointless storyline with May’s brother.

Not then. She certainly couldn't have been a single adoptive mother and in anycase, small babies for adoption were becoming less available because of contraception and the "shame" of unmarried motherhood diminishing. I believe that the inspection of prospective parents was (?still is) pretty thorough so even a lavender marriage would probably not have passed muster at the time. I can remember in the early 90's (think I have said this before) when I was living in the USA there was quite a sensation when some American states were allowing gay men in partnerships to foster unwanted babies born with HIV. No one else wanted them, they couldn't be put into care with uninfected babies and were not expected to have long lives. Harsh but those were the facts.

I think that for Beryl, it was "the heart wants what it wants" without being emotionally in a position to consider what the facts were. I too experienced the sadness and intense longing for children as an early menopause symptom and I didn't even want children, never had. I think that this sudden flood of feeling was understood and known about within the order, hence the period for reflection
Rosalind did talk about needing to get the pill early enough to be safe for her weekend away but no its not 100% effective.

one of them was a Dr Who, albeit a movie one.

A quick google tells me that single people have always been allowed to adopt. Though how common it would have been in practice I don’t know.

@RitaIncognita I was watching an older film last night on Amazon and noticed an actor who reminded me of Dr. Turner (but in my opinion somewhat better looking, sorry Stephen). I googled and it was Paul McGann. I didn't realize that there is a whole lot of them.

Yes, there are 4 of them who pop up on TV in various roles. They do look similar to each other.

How would she have supported herself and a child as a single parent?

they have never NOT been allowed to adopt....I belive that even now different agencies are allowed to set their own rules provided they fit within general social services requirements, but they certainly would not have been first choice and, as i said there was an increasing shortage of babies for adoption.

Back in the very early nineties a friends then partner claimed he didnt like Neighbours. He hated it so much that he forgot about the chip pan in the kitchen which caught fire while he was watching it.

It feels to me that that got a couple of episodes into the series and were then told that it would be ending. It felt like they were setting story lines up but then had to abandon them.

Thanks for this @MarchWindsAnd There is a strong family resemblance.

yes! There was no mention that this would be the final series and then suddenly boom! oh this will be the last series.

Paul. The 8th Dr
The movie is fucking dire though.

I know...never managed to watch more than about 15 minutes

@godmum56 I think the podcast was going for the more dramatic retelling of stuff, haha! Remembering the very cool be in the know places. Although window coverings makes sense to avoid accidental outings. You'd not necessarily want to be drinking somewhere where Maggie at work would spy you sat at the bar I guess.

Geoffrey's hangout had definite posh hidden private club vibes. No basement disco for him.

I guess the gentleman's club could do a lot of heavy lifting for a certain demographic of gay man back in the day.

I lived near Chelsea. Nobody cared. Bath and Bristol was a bit like that too. I mean I guess if you wanted your social life a bit more "out there" then there was more need for privacy but for the folk who just wanted to live life with the partner of their choice, shop in M and S and bicker over who should put the bins out....really at least in my experience, nobody cared.

But it was announced two series ago that there would be two more and that was it. I just think people have forgotten. I have known since the previous series started that we were on the countdown to the end.

Trixie's not in a loveless marriage, though. They had a long-distance marriage so that Matthew could restore the family finances, and he was always going to return to London. I do think that Trixie realized that maybe the long-distance thing wasn't working anymore.

It was rather convenient that his mother died, which meant he got back control of Aylward Estates and put Trixie on the Board.

Having Sr. Evangelina see Sr. Monica off was such a perfect note.

Paul McGann was in a bunch of things, probably most famous for Withnail and I.

I remember one of the others, Joe I think, being in a sitcom way back where he was a housekeeper or nanny or something for a wealthy business woman.

There is a fourth brother I am sure but I can't remember anything he has been in