Get out the hankies, the nuns are back
IF YOU ever thought that Call The Midwife (BBC One, Sunday) was a simple piece of gentle, heartstringtugging drama you should think again. This Sunday night stalwart, now in its celebratory 10th season, is one of the most thought-provoking and yes, emotional dramas on television.
Writer Heidi Thomas is like a magician as she weaves multiple story strands through an hour’s television. She crams into that hour what other screenwriters fail to do in an entire season.
Within 20 minutes, we had Judy Parfitt’s wonderful Sister Monica Joan struggling with her faith, neighbours having babies at the same time but one with a sick father, Helen George’s Trixie being outsourced to a private clinic in Mayfair, finding accommodation for a young black man attracting racism, the disappearance of the World Cup, and the new racy habits for the nuns.
One pinafore dress was – shock – “above the knee”. What nunsense I hear you say. Added to that, the residents of Nonnatus House seem to have just discovered Nescafé. “I’d like a double spoon please,” said Jenny Agutter’s trailblazing but highly stressed Sister Julienne. Clearly, the only way to get through the workload if you’re also helping out the “too-posh-topush” crowd.
This was the most curious of the plots. But it did give Trixie the opportunity to posh it up a bit and introduce an intriguing though rather creepy gynaecologist at the ever-soswish, and up-west Lady Emily Clinic. His special trick was to warm his hands on a hot-water bottle which Trixie would slip him. “I use it before every consultation,” he oozed.
Meanwhile, Sister Monica Joan was recovering from a broken leg while watching daytime television in bed, the first known case of a “duvet day” in post-war Britain. Binge-watching Monica couldn’t take her eyes off police drama Softly, Softly – a favourite of career criminals all over the East End – and now nuns, apparently.
She said to her colleague, “The officer in Softly, Softly appears to be involved in an altercation. Might you increase the volume.”
Later, down on the allotment, Sister Monica sought guidance from salt-of-the-earth (and occasionally digging in it) Fred Buckle (Cliff Parisi) about her religious travails. Ploughing the wrong furrow there, Sister.
By the episode’s end, the birth of a deformed baby due to the father’s radiation exposure on Christmas Island introduced an important, harrowing
HAS ITV given up the fight?
Last week, its weapons in the ratings battle against the BBC were James Bond, and a repeat of Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip series one. They were the four 9pm offerings from ITV across consecutive nights, from Sunday. You may be a fan of James Bond, but ITV is not really trying if it’s showing Casino Royale against Line Of Duty. Granted, mostly anything the commercial channel put up against Ted Hastings would fail. It doesn’t excuse, however, offering a road trip from two-and-a-half shouty chefs as a repeat over three nights. Way past
its sell-by-date.
plot which writer Heidi Thomas relished. The fight for justice has only just begun. The last place you expected to find Kate Winslet was in the scuzzy opioid drug district of Easttown in America.
But there she was as a detective sergeant in Mare Of Easttown (Sky Atlantic, Monday), a new drama series.
It almost doesn’t really matter but Easttown is a real place and Winslet’s acting was gritty and believable too. However, after 20 minutes of no action apart from a peeping tom “who looked like a ferret”, and a domestic row over access, I was recalling pacier episodes of The Bill.
Her detective had a confusing role. She was “mostly looking after burglaries”. They still do that in America? Commendable. Her local claim to fame was having thrown a basketball a long way into a hoop. Is that it? It must have happened in a Super League.
But the strangest casting was Aussie
Guy Pierce as the romantic interest. He was a local creative writing teacher but took all evening, he conceded, to fashion a pick-up line, which he hadn’t expected to use – until she sat down next to him.
With a body appearing in the final minutes, the drama became more intriguing though as dark as they come.
The plot was lost somewhere on the roulette table in The Syndicate (BBC One, Tuesday). Last week’s episode went full soap, with the forlorn story of Jake’s hapless love-life and hope for access to his daughter. Boo hoo! But what about the £27million, you pesky kids?
The poor viewer is waiting for a glamorous, Monaco-set caper drama, starring Duke the wolfhound. But instead we’ve plummeted into the misery of teenage pregnancies and emergency dashes to hospitals. Did the budget only include one day’s filming in Monaco?
All the while, the staff of “Mercury Millions” comprises a Russian minder and a spiv salesman. They can’t be for real.
And there we remain – Scooby Do does Casino Royale.
Finally, the wait will soon be over, and you can release yourself from the edge of your seat after last week’s amazing episode of Line Of Duty (BBC One , Sunday). We will find out tonight who shot whom, the greatest mystery (almost) since Who Shot JR? But will Line Of Duty jump the shark? I can’t wait to find out, at 9pm.