TV Review – ‘Call the Midwife’, Christmas Special 2017

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

I’d like to give a quick review on the 2017 Christmas Special of ‘Call the Midwife’. My parents and I watched this Christmas Special on Christmas Day. This past year, my parents have been getting into ‘Call the Midwife’. This is a TV drama series about midwifery set in the 1950s and 1960s.

It has lasted for six seasons and a seventh season is due to be transmitted on BBC TV in 2018. I’m not so familiar with ‘Call the Midwife’ as my parents are. I’ve seen the first episode but a lot has changed since then in terms of the regular characters coming and going.

So I’m going to give you an idea of what the ‘Call the Midwife’ Christmas Special is about and how it stands up on its own. The series stars Jenny Agutter and Judy Parfitt. There’s also Linda Bassett and Helen George. I really need to catch up with the TV series to know the characters.

The episode first takes place over Christmas 1962. The Christmas segment is quickly glossed over as Boxing Day brings in a large snowfall that covers all the country, leading into early 1963. This apparently was the big freeze of 1963 which my Mum and Dad recalled when we were watching this.

It was interesting to see how the midwifery team in the series coped during the 1963 big freeze. Little milk is provided with the milk float struggling to make deliveries. It was also interesting how the lives of people are affected in the special and how the midwifery team carry out their duties as normal.

One subplot of this episode that got me emotionally gripped was when Jennifer Kirby as Nurse Valerie helps Linda and Selwyn, a couple in a caravan, to deliver their baby. It was very emotional as the baby didn’t seem to be breathing after being born. But an amazing twist occurred.

I also liked the subplot where Jenny Agutter as Sister Julienne rescued a widow and discovered an uncomfortable history of family abuse. It was touching how Jenny Agutter’s character tried to reconcile the daughter with her mother, as intriguing revelations were revealed during the special.

The special also seems to feature the departure of Jack Ashton as Tom Hereward who is offered a new position as curate in Birmingham. It would mean him taking his wife Charlotte Ritchie as Nurse Barbara with him for at least six months. It’ll be interesting to see how that turns out in the TV show.

I enjoyed watching the ‘Call the Midwife’ Christmas Special on Christmas Day this year. It provided a relaxing atmosphere, despite some of the emotionally churning bits. I would like to see ‘Call the Midwife’ in the New Year, although I will need to do a little catching up with the other six TV series.

By the way, Trevor Cooper (who was in ‘Doctor Who’) played the policeman Sgt. Woolf in the special.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim. 🙂