Call the Midwife

We watched it on the Drama channel.

tonight's episode - what have I missed?

It's true Ana, but she bears no resentment!

Going off the subject of nuns, tonight's episode almost had me in tears. It was a repeat, but so emotional when Chummie lost her mother (or should I say mater?)

Jalima!

Nuns as teachers cannot be compared with nuns as nurses , quite a few if my teachers were horors, not one was a nun

Much of the allegations against nuns are caused by the number of money making books written .

There was some harshness but it was of it's time

An old lady I know was brought up by nuns in an orphanage. She said they were very kind, they allowed her to eat their scraps in exchange for washing the kitchen floor.
She must have been about 7 or 8 at the time.

I am always fascinated by how kind and caring the nuns are in this. I was taught by nuns in the 1950s. 90% of them were horrors.

how about poverty and chastity ?

Nuns -the order I worked with/for- did not have money , I mean not even £1 , if they needed to shop Mother Superior would leave the money in their refractory .

As for chastity, I was having a cuppa with the kitchen staff and we were talking child birth, one of the sisters joined us and said - all that pain for a few minutes pleasure , she was laughing when she said it.

I could never have become a nun then

Nuns go where they are told to go, no choice and if she did go she couldn't make the decision to stay or leave - obedience

not that I want to lose her from any future episodes if there are any, but they could have one or two 'specials' where one or another go out to help her run the clinic with that rather terrifying doctor.

The quiet nun stayed with the nun with dementia
Yes, I realised she did but I was surprised because I thought the Hope Clinic would be just the right place for her to go to and decide to stay permanently.

Retired ?

A lot of women didn't want to go into hospital to have their babies - and where would all the locums and midwife cover have come from?

Hospitals and loccums , Mother Superior helped the hospital in one series

So who looked after all the clinics and deliveries in Poplar when they all disappeared off to SA? Didn't add up.

The quiet nun stayed with the nun with dementia

It was enjoyable, if unrealistic - surprising that the midwives went but not the nun midwife. I would have thought the sweet, little quiet nun would have gone and decided to stay out there and work for a year or two at the mission hospital.

And how did they manage to all have time off for a day at the beach?

Well, I suppose the beach scene added to the programme!

London had hospitals, and what about loccums

I sort of agree with Antonia that the East End setting is part of the plot and that the shift to Africa made it less realistic.
On the other hand all the characters remained true to themselves and I liked the honesty of the relationship between the blonde girl (Trixie?) and the one who got engaged to the vicar.

I enjoyed it , I started my SRN training in 1969 so only a short time after this was set . I don`t think many nurses I trained with were so saintly though ! I don`t think that decamping to South Africa would have ever happened regardless of the nurses being seconded to a Nunnery . Very enjoyable all the same .

I love the usual episodes of CTM and also the books but I disliked the Christmas special episode. I thought the plot was totally unreal. I mean, what were the poor pregnant women of Poplar supposed to do when the midwives were off in South Africa, not to mention the local doctor gallivanting off too! I love seeing and reading about that particular period in the East End of London and the magic comes partly from the brilliant acting but for me it is the fact that the books and TV series are based on reality that makes it wonderful and emotive to watch. Stick to the docklands!

I love CTM for all same reasons as already posted. Was sad though to think apartheid wasn't that long ago. In UK in late 1940s my MiL got married and I remember she told me how sad she was to be made to give up her job as a nurse after her wedding, as her dad said her new husband needed looking after 'properly' as he was a widower with a young son. No thought for her needs or wishes!

Found it a very enjoyable programme for Christmas viewing though not sure DH would agree! (Think he will be watching cricket today so all's fair).