Call the Midwife

Previously on Call the Midwife: Last week's recap is right this way.

This has been quite the series for infestations and contagious disease outbreaks. First, London experienced a rat invasion. Next came an epidemic of dysentery. Oh and don’t forget the syphilis-ridden brothel. Now our medical professionals must contend with a very nasty disease indeed, diphtheria.

More on the pestilence later because I know we all want to celebrate the long-awaited return of Nurse Cynthia Miller, now known as Sister Mary Cynthia (Bryony Hannah). She’s left the mother house in Chichester with some encouraging words from Sister Evangelina and a bit of anxiety about coming back to her former home in an entirely new capacity.

Previously on Call the Midwife: Last week's recap is right this way.

As they say in England, this week’s episode is chockablock with everything we’ve come to expect from Call the Midwife. In fact, it features a virtual Poplar baby boom with ten children being delivered by our midwives in one day! Some of the characters who have been in the background for a few weeks (or more) were given the spotlight. And while one Nonnatus resident has her worth validated another sees her “perfect” life crumble before her eyes.

There is a definite focus on the worth of women in this installment. We encounter women who sell their bodies cheaply, a father who values a son over a daughter and women who lose purpose and are expected to fade into the background after a war, marriage or even when they’ve advanced in age.

Previously on Call the Midwife: Last week's recap is right this way.

As tonight’s episode begins, we are reminded that the sixties have well and truly arrived in Poplar. The threat of a nuclear attack is a very real fear and handyman Fred (Cliff Parisi) is leading up the local civil defense corps. His job is to train the other volunteers about emergency preparedness. He’s such a community-minded fellow, our Fred.

Other things that have arrived in the neighborhood recently are a rat infestation and an outbreak of dysentery, the latter being a more immediate concern to Dr. Turner and the midwives. Shelagh Turner even puts her exceptional powers of detection to work in an attempt to locate the source of the infection.

Previously on Call the Midwife: Last week's recap is right this way.

All right, this episode did get my tears flowing. I mean how could I not grab for the tissues? Barbara and Patsy were crying; new Poplar parents, the Bissettes, were crying; for heaven’s sake, Sister Julienne was crying. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to well up a bit. I believe one of the main reasons there was so much blubbering was because this episode had a theme of doubt and the melancholy of what might have been.

Welcome back to another series of Call the Midwife! The time has come to return to Poplar to share in the joys and sorrows of this working class community and cheer on their most dedicated altruists, the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House.

It’s 1960 and just as we’ve come to expect, change is a constant at the convent, especially when it comes to the staffing situation. To refresh your memory, Nurse Miller (Bryony Hannah) has left Poplar for Chichester where she will undergo her postulate training to become a nun. Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) has reassured Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) – and the viewers – that Cynthia will return.

It’s official: It’s almost time for a new season of Call the Midwife! Everyone’s favorite tear-jerking period drama is headed back to our screens for a fourth season (it’s already been renewed for a fifth, by the way) and the BBC has finally released the first trailer the show’s return. It is, as you might expect, a rather potent mixture of tears, laughter, drama and a proposal for one of our favorite characters.

This season will mark the first without original Call the Midwife star Jessica Raines, but as we saw in the recent holiday special, while Nurse Jenny Lee is certainly missed, the show is more than capable of carrying on merrily (or sniffle-y or whatever you want to call it) along without her. In her absence, a few new faces will be joining the crew at Nonnatus House – Fresh Meat’s Charlotte Ritchie and Lark Rise to Candleford’s Linda Bassett, who will play nurses Barbara Gilbert and Phyllis Crane, respectively.

Rejoice, Call the Midwife fans – it’s almost time to return to Nonnatus House for the midwives annual holiday episode, and in celebration the BBC has released the first trailer for this upcoming special.

The clip is all sorts of festive, featuring Christmas crackers, an enormous tree, a nativity play and a handful of platitudes, all backed by a moving over of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. It’s pretty much a textbook holiday spot, and it’s enough to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside after just 30 seconds. Of course, there’s also a dash of the standard emotional angst, and adorable newborns, but, hey, that’s fairly standard fare for Call the Midwife.

And, while it’s strange to see a clip without star Jessica Raine – who departed at the end of Series 3 – it’s equally as strange to feel okay about that. The show looks pretty much the same – and by that I mean I think we can assume it’s going to be just fine.

It’s official: As filming wraps up on the fourth series of award-winning emotional tearfest Call the Midwife, the period drama has been renewed for a fifth season by the BBC.

The ladies of Nonnatus House are already slated to return for a Christmas special at the end of this year, with a full fourth season coming in the early part of 2015 (January for the lucky ducks in the UK, late March for those of us in America). But now, before these new episodes even have screened anywhere, the show’s been given a fresh order for an additional eight-part fifth series, set to screen in 2016. Whew.

This announcement is actually not that surprising, given that Call the Midwife is one of the UK’s most-watched dramas since it launched in 2012, averaging over ten million viewers per episode over all three series, and 11.4 million tuning in to the Series 3 premiere last year. Additionally, the show has proved an admirable performer for PBS here in the States, and has developed quite the enthusiastic fanbase.

Endeavour has recently returned to Masterpiece Mystery for a second series and I must say I find it to be the most compelling show on PBS’ very British Sunday night line-up. So far DC Morse (Shaun Evans) has solved intricate cases dealing with beauty queens, ancient artifacts, a boarding school for girls and a century’s old mass murder. In addition, I’m looking forward to discovering how the Freemasons play into all the mayhem being unleashed in Oxford.

As advertised when it first aired last summer, Endeavour is the origin story of the beloved Inspector Morse, who was played by the late John Thaw in the orignial series of the same name. This prequel is not only an opportunity to allow fans of the original series to see Morse solve a few more murders, but a peek into the past to discover how the promising young Endeavour developed into the brilliant but somewhat sullen detective he became. We get to witness his growing affinity for opera and drink, as well as get a glimpse of some people who will follow him through his police career. Fans love little homages like that and new viewers get to meet a well-written character with a definite destiny ahead of him.

The concept of the prequel got me to thinking about other series that might want to employ this narrative device. While some shows are all about character development and uncovering the layers, so to speak, there are other personalities that are so mysterious, eccentric or enigmatic you can’t help wondering how they got that way.

Iconic actress Vanessa Redgrave has been a part of the Call the Midwife cast since the show began in 2012, as the voice of Jennifer Worth (née Lee), whose memoirs provide the basis of the show and whose frequently heartwarming, occasionally treacle-y voiceover narration bookends each episode.

Her narration has become as much as part of the show as the midwives themselves – as evidenced by this Red Nose Day spoof from a couple years ago – so it’s a relief to know that Redgrave will indeed be continuing on in her role as the voice of reason and perspective, even though Jessica Raine – who plays the younger Jenny – has departed the canvas for the time being.

But that’s not all: Redgrave herself will actually appear herself in the period drama’s fourth season. The seventy-seven year old actress will appear in the 2014 Christmas special, which has just begun filming, playing the mature Worth onscreen for the first time. My best guess: A later in life Worth explains how she knows all these stories when she left the midwives in 1959. After all, Worth did maintain a lifelong friendship with the residents of Nonnatus House, so it would make sense.