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| Call The Midwife |
If you are patiently awaiting the return of Downton Abbey, you have a real treat in store. Call The Midwife is a BBC miniseries based on the best selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth. I can't talk this one up enough! I love it!!! The stories of young midwives delivering babies in the East End of London in the 1950s is moving and funny and will have you coming back for all 5 episodes. Sunday night on PBS is going to be wonderful this fall!
Jessica Raine plays Jenny Lee, a young woman from the wealthy countryside of England who has trained as a nurse and midwife and is posted to the rough East End of London. The series follows her and her fellow midwives as they work in one of the poorest parts of London, still reeling from the bombings of WWII.
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| Judy Parfitt, Pam Ferris, Jenny Agutter and Laura Main as the nuns |
Instead of the hospital Jenny Lee is expecting, she finds herself posted to a convent (Nonnatus House) with some fairly unconventional nuns. Judy Parfitt (Mrs. Clennam from Little Dorrit) and Jenny Agutter (Idina Hatton from The Buccaneers) are particularly wonderful as the nuns overseeing and teaching the young midwives. Judy Parfitt plays the adorable Sister Monica Joan who has a bit of dementia and is only occasionally lucid. Hilarious and touching at the same time. Jenny Agutter is Sister Julienne, the real heart of the operation and someone for the young midwives to look up to.
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| Helen George, Miranda Hart, Jessica Raine and Bryony Hannah |
Long before her memoirs were filmed, author of the book Jennifer Worth asked Miranda Hart to play Chummy Browne, the six foot tall ungainly, clumsy midwife featured in the stories. If you haven't seen comedienne Miranda Hart before, you will love her and you will start to look for her in other things. She doesn't appear until episode 2 so stay tuned.
If I have any readers in the UK, Australia, New Zealand or Europe who have already seen this, please comment below and tell us what you thought of it. Personally, I cannot wait!
P.S. As PBS says, check local listings. Some of the stations are starting this Sunday Sept 30 at 8pm but my local station in Buffalo has it listed as starting the week after (Sunday Oct. 7 at 8 pm)
sounds interesting
ReplyDeleteI'll check it out. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds great Jenny. By the way. I watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel last night and it was fantastic. Even my husband loved it. Keep the recommendations coming!
ReplyDeleteps..."Elementary" tomorrow!!! Can't wait.
ReplyDeleteI live in Brasil but I have a devoted brother in Dublin who sends me the good stuff from UK. Call the Midwife is touching and funny, has a perfect casting, beautiful fotography, great art direction. It's one of the best series I've seen lately, side by side with Downton Abbey.
ReplyDeleteHeard about this. Generally well received I think.
ReplyDeleteI'd probably have to wait and catch on DVD, out in
November.
I finally got the TV to myself last night to watch the DVR recording of "Call the Midwife"! It was fantastic - even my husband got drawn in ... especially when he came over to clarify if he'd heard one line correctly - "Did they say that that woman had given birth to 24 children and that this was her 25th? Are you kidding?" Those women truly were heroines, giving birth to and taking care of many children in the poverty-stricken east end of post-war London (with the debris from the bombing still in the streets in 1957!). Astounding that this "historical drama" is set only 55 years ago - nearly living memory for some of us! All I can say is, thank God for birth control and epidurals!
ReplyDeleteCheerio,
Big Sister
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ReplyDeleteRe: Call the Midwife. I hope you all like it as much as my sister and Stella. Apparently some people don't like the gritty reality of this show but I found it charming and touching. Not as gritty as Dickens, so 100 years did some good in the East end!
ReplyDeleteI have just watched Series 1 online and I really enjoyed it. One of my friends recommended the show to me. I love all the characters.
ReplyDelete