Picking things up after the more heartbreaking and downbeat end to its fourth season, Call the Midwife returns to BBC One for its annual Christmas special. Like last year’s festive instalment, and many other episodes of the show, it juggles a significant number of storylines. There are probably about five separately identifiable intersecting strands to the episode’s plot, … >
Like the best episodes of Call the Midwife, Season 4’s finale is at once uplifting and heartbreakingly sad. And, really, if there’s anything the episode is about, it’s how the good always comes with the bad; it’s most explicitly stated in a single, brief conversation between Tom and Trixie: she on the way back from delivering a child, … >
The idea of two babies being accidentally swapped and given to different mothers is a nightmare scenario for new parents and the last thing you’d expect the diligent midwives of Nonnatus House to do. But a water shortage and a fire in the maternity home lead to exactly that happening here, and the weight of the … >
Call the Midwife returns to BBC One for a fourth season. > Buy the complete Season 1-3 boxset on Amazon. Christmas 2014 special Thursday 25 December 2014, 7.50pm > Read our review. The episode opens in 2005. Jennifer Worth is at home preparing for Christmas with husband Philip, and as she reminisces about her … >
Easily the most compelling story within Call the Midwife’s sixth episode of the season is that of Paulette (Nell Hudson). A 17-year-old diabetic who discovers she is pregnant and is presented with the possibility of a dangerous pregnancy or a legal abortion (rare at the time but available because having the baby could harm its health and … >
It’s unusual for a one-hour drama to feel rushed, but this week’s Call the Midwife does juggle a little more than it can manage to. The pacing is just a little off, even if the story beats are still moving and compelling. While we remain without any sign of Chummy, and Sister Evangelina has been gone … >
Even more than a regular episode of Call the Midwife, this instalment is about the roles that women play in public life. Whether it’s Trixie being silenced by an important bishop, prostitutes dealing with getting syphilis so that they don’t lose clients or the worries of a man who thinks a daughter couldn’t carry on his family … >
For the first time in the show’s run, Call the Midwife devotes an episode to discussing attitudes towards homosexuality, and the fact that it was considered a crime during the period in which the show is set. The third episode of Season 4 is primarily about the struggle faced by Tony, a closeted gay man caught by … >
In the second episode of the new season, Call the Midwife doesn’t slow down as new midwife Phyllis Crane (Linda Bassett) is added to the staff at Nonnatus House. And, if you found last week’s tale of child neglect heart-wrenchingly sad, this week’s main story somehow takes the pain and misery up another notch. To say that the experiences … >
Call the Midwife is happy with embracing change, as it has done many times over the years, and this episode is one that sets the tone for things as we move forward into the drama’s fourth season. Jenny Lee is now definitely not featuring at all save for her voiceover, and Cynthia isn’t even in the premiere. … >