Call The Midwife’s moving storylines
These letters are in response to an editorial (TVG, Jun 17-23), with Rosie Marriott winning a free 12-month subscription to the TV Guide. Congratulations, Rosie!
The most moving episode of Call
The Midwife for me was episode one of series four. I cannot get the heartbreak of it out of my mind and have often recalled it because I know people my age – born in the 40s – who were sent out to Australia and New Zealand as children for a better life, which did not eventuate. This is the episode where the appallingly dirty, neglected and starving older brother, only a young lad himself, took his sickly baby sister to the Poplar clinic in search of milk tokens and orange juice. The staff at Nonnatus House cared for, bathed, clothed and fed all four of the children. It seemed as though there was to be a happy outcome with the adoption of the baby and the three older siblings shipped to Australia through the Child Migrants Programme. But as we saw them happily boarding the liner, believing that their troubles were over and that they were headed for a warmer climate and happier life ahead, we were told that they would be separated on arrival in Australia and doomed to a childhood of hard labour and abuse with little education and no loving homes. Tragically this is not fiction – it is the reality of those times and that legacy is still with us as those children, now grandparents, try to piece together the jigsaw of their lives. Rosie Marriott (Hastings)
It’s the thalidomide story that touches me the most, as my mum told me how in 1958, while pregnant with me, she resisted taking the drug as recommended by her doctor for morning sickness. She recalls seeing other mums around her giving birth to babies suffering the unfortunate side-effects. I am thankful to Mum for putting me first all those years ago. Heather
We love Call The Midwife. I hope it keeps going for years. The storyline that is still vivid is the one where the thalidomide baby was put on a cold, stainless-steel bench and left there with the window open. One of the sisters rescued it. It was heart-wrenching. I paused the scene several times to see how they were able to make it look like the baby had no arms/legs. I couldn’t work it out. Gail Torr (Feilding)
I am a big fan of Call The Midwife. I cry most episodes. One of the most moving storylines for me had nothing to do with babies. It was about nurse Jenny looking after an elderly lady who had been in a workhouse. Very sad. Also, I love the ongoing story with Sister Monica Joan’s fall into dementia and how the nuns and nurses protect her. My husband’s grandmother had electric shock therapy for postnatal depression after her child was born, which affected her her whole life. It’s hard to imagine now. Jana Kershaw