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Call the Midwife 5.05
In which Delia becomes everyone's heroine, Timothy puts Freud to good use, and the fact that Fred's wife owns a haddashery post watching The Hateful 8 has become unappropriately sinister to me.
The whole sequence of Roseanne giving birth alone because Phyllis Crane can't reach her in time, so Delia has to talk her through it on the phone, is the kind of thing that usually would be the episode's climax, not the opener, so I was very surprised they put right at the beginning. And a nailbiting, intense sequence it was, too, among other things establishing Delia's competence under fire - in fact, I think this must be the first scene Delia has had unrelated to either her romance with Patsy or her accident followed by temporary amnesia etc., and a great character establishing scene it was, too. The midwives toasting her afterwards was well earned. (Also Sister Monica Joan's double entendre about the male organ and Sister Julienne covering with a nenewed toast made me grin.)
As it turned out, this was the beginning of a subplot which at first I thought was about post natal depression, though it was clear from before the birth Roseanne had some massive feelings of inferiority going on already. My original assumption was that she was unalphabetic and ashamed of that, but as it turned out she could write and read, just not well, and her sense of inferiority was about having grown up in a state orphanage followed by prostitution. I appreciated the episode was careful to avoid a "prostitutes (ex or not) can't make good mothers" misreading by showing Roseanne's old friend being a fiercely good one and making it clear it's not the former prostitution but Roseanne's feelings of shame and unworthiness about it that, combined with the post natal depression, are the problem. Also that Roseanne's husband is shown as maybe a bit clueless of just how badly she feels but doing his best to be supportive throughout.
Fred subplot: Now I've noticed the name of Mrs. Buckle's establishment before, but as I said above cut, watching the episode so shortly after the Tarantino movie conjured up some truly weird crossover imagery!
Everyone's been period appropriately smoking on this show from the first season onwards, so of course sooner or later there would be a plot with one of the characters clueing in to the possibility that this is Not Good At All. In this case, Timothy decides to rescue his father and Shelagh from future death by lung cancer by reverse psychology combined with a Xanatos gambit, and lo, it works. (Well, considering how much Dr. Turner smoked already through his life, it might not in the long term, but you know what I mean. Also, while there are tragedies on the show, I seriously doubt it would kill Patrick Turner.) Aided by Dr. Turner being confronted by a shrivelled smoker's lung by friend from pathology. All of which may be a bit on the nose and perhaps too early in terms of when people began to wake up to how dangerous nicotine could be, but you know what, I don't care, I loved it, from the early Turner family scene of Timothy reading Freud while Patrick and Shelagh study the latest Poplar health report onwards. Also, LOL about the three of them making James Bond jokes. Re: the biscuits eating, I remember that when my mother quit smoking! Only in her case it was plain old chocolate and for some reason lots of cheese.
The whole sequence of Roseanne giving birth alone because Phyllis Crane can't reach her in time, so Delia has to talk her through it on the phone, is the kind of thing that usually would be the episode's climax, not the opener, so I was very surprised they put right at the beginning. And a nailbiting, intense sequence it was, too, among other things establishing Delia's competence under fire - in fact, I think this must be the first scene Delia has had unrelated to either her romance with Patsy or her accident followed by temporary amnesia etc., and a great character establishing scene it was, too. The midwives toasting her afterwards was well earned. (Also Sister Monica Joan's double entendre about the male organ and Sister Julienne covering with a nenewed toast made me grin.)
As it turned out, this was the beginning of a subplot which at first I thought was about post natal depression, though it was clear from before the birth Roseanne had some massive feelings of inferiority going on already. My original assumption was that she was unalphabetic and ashamed of that, but as it turned out she could write and read, just not well, and her sense of inferiority was about having grown up in a state orphanage followed by prostitution. I appreciated the episode was careful to avoid a "prostitutes (ex or not) can't make good mothers" misreading by showing Roseanne's old friend being a fiercely good one and making it clear it's not the former prostitution but Roseanne's feelings of shame and unworthiness about it that, combined with the post natal depression, are the problem. Also that Roseanne's husband is shown as maybe a bit clueless of just how badly she feels but doing his best to be supportive throughout.
Fred subplot: Now I've noticed the name of Mrs. Buckle's establishment before, but as I said above cut, watching the episode so shortly after the Tarantino movie conjured up some truly weird crossover imagery!
Everyone's been period appropriately smoking on this show from the first season onwards, so of course sooner or later there would be a plot with one of the characters clueing in to the possibility that this is Not Good At All. In this case, Timothy decides to rescue his father and Shelagh from future death by lung cancer by reverse psychology combined with a Xanatos gambit, and lo, it works. (Well, considering how much Dr. Turner smoked already through his life, it might not in the long term, but you know what I mean. Also, while there are tragedies on the show, I seriously doubt it would kill Patrick Turner.) Aided by Dr. Turner being confronted by a shrivelled smoker's lung by friend from pathology. All of which may be a bit on the nose and perhaps too early in terms of when people began to wake up to how dangerous nicotine could be, but you know what, I don't care, I loved it, from the early Turner family scene of Timothy reading Freud while Patrick and Shelagh study the latest Poplar health report onwards. Also, LOL about the three of them making James Bond jokes. Re: the biscuits eating, I remember that when my mother quit smoking! Only in her case it was plain old chocolate and for some reason lots of cheese.
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