8th February 2012 09:00:00
Call the Midwife: Midway Review
Call The Midwife is
Call the Midwife is a BBC One drama set in London's East End during the 1950s, based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth. In it, newly qualified midwife Jenny Lee begins her career alongside an order of nursing nuns.
Jessica Raine, who plays Jenny, says about her character: “She’s young, she’s 22, and she sees all these amazing life stories happening in front of her. She’s constantly learning and re-evaluating her own way of seeing the world. I really like that, I like people who can change their opinions and she does that during the course of the series.”
The series is currently on its fourth episode of six, and so far it has been excellent. The storylines have been expertly converted from the memoirs into high quality television and the fifties post-war vibe is captured perfectly, as is the contrast between Home Counties raised Jenny Lee and the people of the East End. Following stories such as a young pregnant prostitute, a 'surprise' black baby (it was only a matter of time until that plot made an appearance in a drama centred on pregnancy) and in the last episode, a baby snatched from its pram, each one is developed in an interesting and almost poignantly humorous way.
What is nicest about the programme is that all of the characters, especially Chummy played by Miranda Hart, are quirky and realistic, with no special allowances made for main character Jenny. Jenny is prim, bordering on spoilt, and frequently makes poor decisions, but is becoming less tediously proper as the series progresses and I look forward to the day when she is able to encounter bugs in a room without nearly wetting herself with disgust. Chummy is a hilarious character as Miranda Hart is wont to play, and despite being useless at basic skills such as conversation and bike-riding, she is very likeable.
The mixture of serious topics and childbirth scenes (always when I'm eating my dinner, always!) are combined excellently with lighthearted scenes showing the nurses just being the young girls that they are. The relationship between Chummy and her policeman beau are adorable, and provide bittersweet juxtaposition to the heart-crushing emotional scenes of, say, a dying Eclampsia patient.
Thanks to its surprise success, with the opening episode attracting more than 10 million viewers, Call the Midwife has been renewed for another series of eight episodes.
The most recent episode of Call the Midwife is available on iPlayer here as are the first three on Series Catch-Up. You can also find out more about the characters and the programme on its BBC Site here.
The next episode (5/6) will be broadcast next Sunday on BBC One at 8pm.
Jessica Raine, who plays Jenny, says about her character: “She’s young, she’s 22, and she sees all these amazing life stories happening in front of her. She’s constantly learning and re-evaluating her own way of seeing the world. I really like that, I like people who can change their opinions and she does that during the course of the series.”
The series is currently on its fourth episode of six, and so far it has been excellent. The storylines have been expertly converted from the memoirs into high quality television and the fifties post-war vibe is captured perfectly, as is the contrast between Home Counties raised Jenny Lee and the people of the East End. Following stories such as a young pregnant prostitute, a 'surprise' black baby (it was only a matter of time until that plot made an appearance in a drama centred on pregnancy) and in the last episode, a baby snatched from its pram, each one is developed in an interesting and almost poignantly humorous way.
What is nicest about the programme is that all of the characters, especially Chummy played by Miranda Hart, are quirky and realistic, with no special allowances made for main character Jenny. Jenny is prim, bordering on spoilt, and frequently makes poor decisions, but is becoming less tediously proper as the series progresses and I look forward to the day when she is able to encounter bugs in a room without nearly wetting herself with disgust. Chummy is a hilarious character as Miranda Hart is wont to play, and despite being useless at basic skills such as conversation and bike-riding, she is very likeable.
The mixture of serious topics and childbirth scenes (always when I'm eating my dinner, always!) are combined excellently with lighthearted scenes showing the nurses just being the young girls that they are. The relationship between Chummy and her policeman beau are adorable, and provide bittersweet juxtaposition to the heart-crushing emotional scenes of, say, a dying Eclampsia patient.
Thanks to its surprise success, with the opening episode attracting more than 10 million viewers, Call the Midwife has been renewed for another series of eight episodes.
The most recent episode of Call the Midwife is available on iPlayer here as are the first three on Series Catch-Up. You can also find out more about the characters and the programme on its BBC Site here.
The next episode (5/6) will be broadcast next Sunday on BBC One at 8pm.
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