One of TV’s most popular series with a passionate global fan base eagerly awaiting the new season. It’s finally back. No high school football player flirts with cannibalism. Family members stab each other in the back for seats in the executive boardroom. or Americans spreading some crazy charm around the English football team’s locker room? No, the show we mean is BBC. call the midwifeThe long-running television series returns to America on PBS this weekend.
in Poplar, London’s inhospitable East End neighborhood. Residents face many challenges in taking care of their health. Even in the mid-20th century, the tenement houses they lived in might not have indoor pots or running water. New immigrants who have not yet learned English may have a hard time expressing physical pain. Fear of judgment from neighbors who swarm them from all sides may prevent them from needing desperately needed treatment.
plays call the midwife Follow the nurses and midwives of Nonnatus House as they provide all forms of care in the district. But for the most part, they do deliver Poplar’s baby. You might think there aren’t enough stories about the relatively standard human birth experience, but you’d be wrong, as the BBC sent the first season back in 2012. call the midwife It has become one of the longest-running services. It has aired more than 100 episodes and last month. The blockbuster has been renewed for several seasons. Make sure it continues to air until at least 2026.
As the show’s 12th season arrives Sunday on PBS, we’ve listed the top five reasons why. call the midwife is essential viewing for TV lovers.
1. It’s a love letter to the NHS.
In 1948, the post-war Labor government introduced the UK’s National Health Service as part of ambitious legislation to expand the welfare state. In general, the NHS guarantees medical care to all Britons. Although there are some exceptions (such as dental and optometry services), patients receive this care free of charge.
at the beginning of call the midwifeIn 1957 we joined the staff of Nonnatus House—a lay midwife in uniform. Anglican nuns who were trained in medicine out of habit—because their parish functions were well established.
In addition to regularly scheduled clinic services at the Poplar Community Center, nurses’ daily duties see them cycling to Poplar to visit patients at home. Most of which are pregnant mothers. But it also includes those who may have difficulty going outside. Seeing a doctor in person, such as the elderly and children, seeing patients in the home allows nurses to follow up on physical problems. (and sometimes psychological) from environmental causes. and connect patients to relevant social services.
This aspect of the nurse’s job became even more important in season 12 with the introduction of new characters. Sister Veronica (Rebecca Gaithings), based on social work. and a proponent of prevention initiatives such as general clinics for children with jobs – apparently still a large and disadvantaged population in 1968 when the season took place.
The NHS in the 21st century has long been a political flashpoint. During a campaign about the “Brexit” referendum in 2016, Vote Leave suggested that the £350 million it claimed the UK sent to the EU could instead go to the NHS. Unfortunately, this claim did not hold up. stay true Less than a decade later, the NHS is facing a doctor shortage. because of Brexit, and earlier this week, nurses, junior doctors and ambulance drivers on strike for 72 hours.
The Leave campaign’s deceptive slogan would have been ineffective had it not been for the love and pride that Britons felt right for the NHS; call the midwife It works as a positive piece of propaganda, reminding viewers that the NHS has helped create close and meaningful relationships between patients and health care providers through generations.
2. It provides a specific historical context.
The current NHS crisis is just one example of a contemporary concern. call the midwife was refracted through the lens in the middle of the century.
over the years We have seen nurses and nuns grapple with a development that directly affects them in terms of their patients’ reproductive health: the creation of the contraceptive pill. Thalidomide tragedy black market abortion forced adoption and a change in attitude toward home birth, but call the midwifePatients also face struggles that continue to this day: situations that compel people to do service work in order to survive; post-traumatic stress that persists from military service Substance abuse problems that lead to domestic violence unfairly withheld care from a pregnant woman during detention An outbreak of a serious contagious disease that requires community quarantine.
Anyone who lived and watched TV in the ’80s and ’90s has seen countless episodes of specials dealing with social issues, with guest stars skydiving to teach the opening credits about them and then gone forever. while call the midwife Use an episodic format to have the weekly patient educate viewers about a specific situation or condition. It also uncovers a long-form narrative through regular and recurring actors.
Patsy (Emerald Fennell, now Oscar-winning screenwriter for promising girl) An elegant and charming midwife who lives abroad with her well-connected family. also an eccentric, closed-minded woman who begins a serious relationship with hospital nurse Delia (Kate Lamb); Although Patsy is highly private and afraid of being discovered. But she took some preliminary steps in exploring gay life. Even going to a lesbian bar
Reggie (Daniel Laurie), a man in his twenties. that is Down syndrome Becomes the surrogate son of Fred’s second cousin (Cliff Parisi), who is the maintenance worker of the Nonnatus House. After Reggie’s mother died, Reggie mostly lived in a community that helped people with cognitive impairments. Participates in Poplar events and festivities when he doesn’t send home a loving postcard to his girlfriend Jane (as Poppy Barrett, although the character is not.) has not been seen since Barrett’s death in 2019)
Viewers spend most of their time with Lucille (Leoney Elliot), who arrives in Poplar in Season 7. Lucille is a librarian in her native Jamaica. Cope with a staffing crisis in the NHS by changing careers and becoming a nurse at Nonnatus House. Lucille’s homesickness subsides when she joins a missionary group and meets Cyril (Zephryn Taitte), a part-time pastor. They later got married. And the tension surrounding the couple’s inability to conceive again following the pregnancy loss in Season 11 was added in Season 12 by racist abuse by Enoch Powell. An unwelcome feeling when an immigrant forces Lucille to make a life-changing decision. Seeing the pain of a beloved character may cause some viewers to rethink their views on current immigration discourse in the UK.
3. display religious characters with dignity
“Don’t discuss politics or religion in a polite company” is a rule people often try to add to other touchy topics, like sex or money—but call the midwife don’t shy away from them And while religious characters in popular culture are often used as jokes or hunters, the nuns of Nonnatus House represent a wide range of emotions and experiences.
We’ve seen a nun – Laura Main’s Shelagh – leave the order to marry and raise a family. We see lay nurse Cynthia, played by Briony Hannah, take sacred orders and dedicate her life to religious service. Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) rejects her aristocratic upbringing. Born and raised in the East End, Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris) Sister Francis (Ella Bruccoleri) enters a sisterhood. together with almost no life experience at all Sister Mildred (Miriam Margolis) and Veronica work for orphans and refugees abroad.
The nuns who lived in and through Nonnatus were patient, gentle, harsh, bitter, and open-minded about their patients’ unique life experiences. And they like to judge choices they wouldn’t make on their own. In other words: even if they choose to marry God for their life and work. But they are three-dimensional beings. And when the show presents characters of other religions such as Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and other Christian sects. Others also treat their beliefs and traditions with respect. Rainn Wilson was told this was the show for him.
4. It emphasizes the importance of being in the community.
In the late 2010s, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy began talking about the “loneliness epidemic” that could become a public health crisis if not dealt with. He later published a book on the subject called Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World…April 21, 2020—just in time for all of us to be together less than ever. The COVID pandemic worsens the problem of loneliness. Experts have called for a national strategy to combat it.
All this may seem abstract. but when you look call the midwifeYou see bright colors like what you might be missing from your life. If you’ve experienced it before, yes, the crowded living conditions of poplars can lead to poor hygiene. Sometimes they spread disease. Yes, they can intimate and ally—if not overtly racist—to newcomers. But there is a sense of camaraderie in the group scene. With interracial friendships growing as the series goes on: we see pregnant moms laughing and comparing records at the clinic, kids playing together in the streets. Neighbors gather to celebrate a wedding or a garden show or a holiday baby pageant.
A visit to The Nonnatus House’s nurses and midwives is invaluable. But even outside the professional context This show shows how neighbors act as ad-hoc social safety networks by caring for each other. share scarce resources and put households in crisis Supported with child care or a plate with a lid.
In one memorable scene in Season 12, Sister Julian (Jenny Agutter) encounters Dr. Treapwood (Timothy Harker), London Board Of Health Commissioner, Threapwood bristles at Nonnatus House in the Autonomous County has carved for himself. Thanks in large part to a gift from Matthew Aylward (Olly Rix), an unwitting slum owner who turns out to be a guilty benefactor. “You can only do so now because of a private charity,” Trepewood told Sister Julienne. “’Charity’ is another word for love,” Sister Julienne replied. She should have known. : Every day, she is surrounded by charitable activities from members of the Poplar community big and small.
5. it will make you cry.
Any show with a focus on medicine must involve real risk and death scenes. Usually, births sometimes go wrong. resulting in the death of the mother or baby or both Naturally, they are destructive.
But the series also does a particularly good job of sorting out the weekly patients. So even if the delivery is going rightYou’ll find yourself choking with a sigh of relief that the bad effects didn’t happen. Or the happiness that babies come to their parents who fear they will never be happy like this. and when the credits open Do the members you watched dozens of episodes have sad challenges or hard-fought victories? Forget it, you’ll be a puddle.
call the midwife It’s a very heartfelt and eminently humane depiction of the duty we all owe to each other… and also a machine built to wipe away your tears. Give up, you won’t regret it.
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