SERIES 10, EPISODE 6
Please feel free to comment on my review.
We now come to the penultimate episode of Series 10 of ‘Call the Midwife’. It’s ironic that the sixth episode is the penultimate episode, as it’s usually the seventh episode in a ‘Call the Midwife’ season.
But of course, production on Series 10 was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the season was reduced from eight to seven episodes. Series 10, Episode 6 is at least a good penultimate episode. 🙂
I found this episode better than the previous episodes in Series 10. There is a gloomy aspect to the episode concerning a woman who conducts a self abortion, but it’s not dwelt on quite severely here.
The episode takes place in September 1966. At the clinic, Helen George as Trixie is tasked with examining a desperate woman who gets pregnant with a fifth child before conducting an abortion. 😦
Trixie sees for herself that her patient – Rebecca Lee as Cherry Watson – is far from stable in her personal life. It also appears that Cherry receives abuse from her husband – David Burnett as Pete. 😐
These issues concerning domestic abuse and abortions have been dealt with before in previous seasons in Series 2 and 9. Here, Trixie is compelled to speak out publicly. First, in a newspaper letter!
Second, when she goes on BBC Radio! Trixie’s expressed opinions garner mixed reactions from Nonnatus House and the community. I assumed Trixie would be in trouble with Sister Julienne here.
Surprisingly, and despite Mother Mildred’s disapproval on the telephone, Jenny Agutter as Sister Julienne permits Trixie to go ahead with speaking out about what she’s seen in poverty and abortions.
This episode takes place a year before the Abortion Act was passed in 1967. It’s intriguing how characters in the ‘Call the Midwife’ series react to the possibility of the Abortion Act being passed. 😐
Whilst this is going on, Ella Bruccoleri as Sister Frances and Stephen McGann as Dr. Turner are entrusted to help a mother-to-be who refuses medical care through her final weeks of pregnancy. 😐
I like how Sister Frances’ character has developed since she first appeared in the 2018 Christmas Special. She’s become more confident by this point, especially with wanting to help out the mothers.
The mother-to-be who refuses medical care happens to be Aysha Kala as Sarita Gupta, who comes from India (I think). Her husband, Harki Bhambra as Raj Gupta, becomes concerned about her in this.
Raj Gupta visits Nonnatus House to ask for help from the midwife team. Linda Bassett as Nurse Crane pays a visit to Sarita Gupta, inviting her to attend Sister Frances’ class for non-English mothers.
I like how Sister Frances forms these classes with help from people like Leonie Elliot as Lucille, Megan Cusack as Nancy and Georgie Glen as Miss Higgins. The classes seem to go rather well here. 🙂
Initially, Sarita is reluctant to attend the classes. It’s interesting how it gets unveiled how Sarita’s obsessed with cleanliness and frightened of trains, connected back to a traumatic childhood she had.
Eventually, all is well with Sarita and the baby being delivered as Sister Frances and Dr. Turner help her. It’s also nice that Sarita was happy to have her baby at the maternity home than at her home. 🙂
As the episode draws to its conclusion, Nancy Corrigan reveals a secret about her background that could threaten her relationship with Sister Julienne and Nonnatus House. She has her own baby girl.
It was intriguing to see how Sister Julienne saw Nancy in her office to discuss the matter and how the sisters who brought her to Nonnatus overlooked the issue. Sister Julienne isn’t happy with this.
She considers her principles in this matter above other things. I’m wondering if Nancy will be allowed to carry on working at Nonnatus House as well as becoming a fully-qualified midwife in this.
A point to note is that Sister Monica Joan and Sister Hilda aren’t in this episode at all. Sister Hilda is still away on her refresher course, I believe. Sister Monica Joan was mentioned once by name in this.
Olly Rix as Matthew Alyward also makes an appearance in this episode when he visits Nonnatus House and meets Sister Julienne. He doesn’t meet up with Trixie however, which was quite unusual.
‘Series 10, Episode 6’ rating – 8/10
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