The weekend on television Rachel Ward Prime-time entertainment that still has plenty to say
‘Why did I ever start this? I must have been mad!” says the opening line of Jennifer Worth’s memoir about working as a midwife in the poverty-stricken East End of London in the Fifties. Well, we’re so glad that she did. Six years after Heidi Thomas first adapted those tales,
(BBC One, Sunday) remains a flagship drama for the BBC. It has now returned for a seventh series brighter, fresher, stronger, and still with much to say.
We’ve grown accustomed to the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House being able to raise our spirits. Despite being in the grip of the Big Freeze of 1963 – the coldest winter for 300 years – they wasted no time in wrapping themselves up in pashminas of the most sparkling blue hues and, with a flick of the switch on their Roberts Radio, danced around to the doo-wop sounds of The Chiffons, getting the new series off to a jolly start.
Their story continued on from the Christmas special, where there’s new life in the form of a baby for Doctor Turner (Stephen Mcgann) and wife Shelagh (Laura Main), a blossoming romance for the once-frivolous nurse Trixie (Helen George) and her dentist beau Christopher (Jack Hawkins), and now a new recruit. Joining the team was Lucille Anderson (a promising Leonie Elliott), a West Indian midwife and the show’s first regular black character. Through her narrative, issues of racial prejudice, both personal and institutional, are addressed as we’ll learn about the experiences of Caribbean nurses in the Sixties who were enlisted to work for the NHS. Lucille finds her place at the heart of Nonnatus House, but others don’t give her the reception that she deserves.
While Call the Midwife does tease particularly emotive storylines, very few other TV shows represent the power of women so well. This episode included the story of a pregnant stripper who opted against the adoption that she was expected to have, giving a sense that women were much more in control than they had been. Elsewhere, Nurse Crane (Linda Bassett) continued to be a force of nature and demonstrated the point further when she silenced Sgt Woolf (Trevor Cooper) with a terse lesson in the power stakes: “My uniform is going to talk to your uniform, Sir”. One can’t argue that Heidi Thomas’s script is poetry in motion, with a speech from Judy Parfitt’s ailing Sister Monica Joan striking right at the heart of the matter of the fragility of life. “You are too swift to declare that my mind is infirm. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything.”
Thank goodness for all of the exotic locations in (BBC One, Sunday): the Palace of Versailles through to the ports of Mumbai and the glistening coastline of Tel Aviv have brought some pizzazz to the gangster tale. Let’s face it, all this business with bank transfers is decidedly dull, and eyes staring intently at computer screens with fingers hovering over mouse buttons doesn’t give you the same buzz as seeing wads of cash being surreptitiously passed around in the dead of night.
No matter, this is a thriller about modern criminality, focusing on money launderers and cybercriminals, and suggesting that the corporate world is as dangerous as organised crime. While The Sopranos was able to send up the mafia model of family loyalty and passing the baton of criminality down the generations, Mcmafia deftly studies the human complexities of this behaviour.
Many viewers have criticised the series for its stately pace and complex plotting with two million turning off since the New Year’s Day opener. But, to me, it’s reminiscent of Kiefer Sutherland’s 24, hopping from person to person, country to country, and connecting the dots along the way. The fifth episode, however, went some way to offer explanation. Our hedgefund hero Alex Godman (James Norton) flew to Israel to try to resolve a crisis involving his backer, shipping magnate Semiyon Kleiman (David Strathairn), who had been arrested on a rape charge. When Alex doublecrossed him, it felt like a move too far. “There’s no telling how far you’ll go,” said a stern Semiyon. And when the denouement came, a surprise encounter with the Russian gangster who killed his uncle, it was a wildeyed affair, played brilliantly by Norton, who looked as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my family,” Alex earlier confessed. Has he passed the point of no return? We no longer know what he’s capable of, and neither, it seems, does he.
Call the Midwife Mcmafia
BBC TWO, 6.30PM
Eye-popping clothing, unbridled enthusiasm and esoteric facts – it can only mean one thing, Michael Portillo’s Great American Railroad Journeys is back. For his new series, the former political-heavyweight turned-t v-d andy is heading from Boston to Toronto, armed only, as he swiftly reminds us, with his “trusty Appleton’s Guide”.
Part of the joy of watching Portillo is the sheer brio that he brings to the show: this is a man with a genuine love of both train travel and unearthing facts, and because of that these half-hour jaunts make for a pleasant way to pass the time.
The opening episode kicks off in Boston, a “energetic and useful” town according to Portillo, who very much approves of it thanks to its mixture of old history and new buildings. After indulging in a spot of historical re-enactment and teathrowing, our guide, in a canary-yellow blazer, heads to a traditional oyster house before making his way to Lowell, Massachusetts, birthplace of the industrial revolution. Surgeons: At the Edge of Life
BBC TWO, 9.00PM
The BBC’S fascinating medical series comes to a close with an episode concentrating on clinical trials. The focus is on surgeons Richard Laing and Thamara Perera who are attempting a new kind of liver transplant. SH
The Queen Mary: Greatest Ocean Liner
BBC FOUR, 9.00PM
A welcome repeat for this interesting documentary, which first aired in 2016, looking at the history of the Sadly, though, he doesn’t take time to quote the best poem about Boston, “home of the bean and the RMS Queen Mary from her maiden voyage to New York in 1936 to her current repurposing as a floating luxury hotel. There are some great interviews, including Johnny Mathis, who sang on the ship’s final voyage, although, as always,