SERIES 10, EPISODE 7
Please feel free to comment on my review.
And here we are on the final episode of Series 10 of ‘Call the Midwife’! It’s a shame that the season got curtailed by one episode due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but I’m glad at least a season was made.
It’s also very fitting to complete the journey my parents and I have been having with watching the complete ‘Call the Midwife’ series so far from Series 1 to 10 from 2020 to 2021. It’s quite incredible.
I’m currently looking forward to the 2021 Christmas Special next and Series 11 when it comes out in 2022. But how does the seventh and final episode of Series 10 hold up? Is it a good finale in general?
In the episode, the Nonnatus House team are struggling to come to terms with the revelation that Megan Cusack as Nancy has a daughter. A revelation not meeting with Nonnatus House’s standards!
Jenny Agutter as Sister Julienne decides to take annual leave at the Mother House to discuss the situation with Mother Mildred. Not that we see this occurring in the episode itself, which is a shame.
Maybe Jenny Agutter was away filming ‘The Railway Children Return’ for 2022 at the time. In Sister Julienne’s absence, Fenella Woolgar as Sister Hilda returns to take over as the leader at Nonnatus. 🙂
Intriguing to see Sister Hilda be leader at Nonnatus and nice for Fenella Woolgar to do something different with her character! Will Sister Hilda take over should Sister Julienne leave the TV series? 😐
We do get to meet Nancy’s little daughter who has to tell her that she’s her sister. Nancy soon takes her daughter away from the orphanage and raises her herself when she finds she’s not well treated.
But Nancy’s efforts in raising her daughter aren’t smooth, especially when she has lodgings that she can’t afford. She almost ends up being taken advantage of by the landlord of her particular lodgings.
Eventually, Nancy returns to Nonnatus House and thankfully some arrangement is made between her and Sister Hilda on behalf of Sister Julienne that she can keep her job to become a midwife here.
Meanwhile, Helen George as Trixie and Ella Bruccoleri as Sister Frances attend to an expectant mother and are appalled to find the condition of her dwellings! There are even rats about the place!
It was astonishing to see Sister Frances kill a rat after rescuing the mother’s baby from it. That rat could have been Remy from ‘Ratatouille’. Or Basil from ‘Fawlty Towers’! Or Rattrap from ‘Beast Wars’!
It was equally astonishing when in her anger; Sister Frances presents the rat to Annabelle Apsion as Violet in her shop. At least Sister Frances isn’t afraid to speak her mind when upset about something.
Violet is willing to hear the case about Poplar’s housing crisis worsening as the Nonnatus team vow to fight for change. It was tense when Olly Rix as Matthew Aylward became involved in the matter. 😐
Trixie is angry with Matthew on how he handles the matter upon visiting the recent mother’s house. Thankfully they’re able to resolve the issue as Trixie helps Matthew to come out of his latest grief. 🙂
It turns out that the Turners’ son, Max Macmillan as Timothy, is about to leave for medical school in Edinburgh. It was good to see how Timothy interacted with his parents and how he readied to leave.
Zephryn Taitte as Cyril has news from home, prompting him and Leonie Elliot as Lucille to consider their future. They’re to have their wedding this coming Christmas. Something to look forward to! 🙂
There’s also a subplot where a special baby is born, causing a rift in a close-knit family. The sister of the mother wanted to adopt her baby as her own, but doesn’t like it when he has Down’s Syndrome.
The father isn’t entirely comfortable when the mother wants to look after the baby herself. I like how Cliff Parisi as Fred Buckles helps the father with his dilemma, sharing his situation with Reggie. 🙂
It was also nice to see Daniel Laurie as Reggie back in the episode. There’s a sense of happiness by the time the episode and Series 10 comes to an end, as most of the characters gather for a happy celebration.
Series 10, Episode 7 is a nice conclusion to this ‘Call the Midwife’ season, which was made during the Covid-19 pandemic. I’m currently looking forward to what will happen in the next Christmas Special.
‘SPECIAL DELIVERY’
So, in place of what would have been the eighth episode of Series 10 of ‘Call the Midwife’, we have a special anniversary documentary about the making of the ‘Call the Midwife’ series. This is to celebrate 10 years of the BBC drama series. I’m quite amazed that the series has lasted for this long.
It’s nice to see how the cast and crew, past and present, share some of their favourite moments from the hit show over the past ten years. Some of the interviews with the cast and crew are archival from previous seasons. Some of them are more recent from the making of Series 10 itself. 🙂
There are interviews with the series’ creator/writer Heidi Thomas as well as executive producers Pippa Harris and Ann Tricklebank. There are also interviews with cast and crew members like Jenny Agutter, Linda Bassett, Helen George, Leonie Elliot, Laura Main, Stephen McGann and Judy Parfitt. 🙂
It was also nice to see people like Jessica Raine, Pam Ferris, Bryony Hannah, Miranda Hart and Jennifer Kirby being interviewed. It’s good that the documentary doesn’t forget the people who were in the show before the current cast came to be. They have been many characters in the series.
The documentary itself doesn’t really focus on particular character journeys, in that it doesn’t look at each character individually. It more or less looks into the themes and topics that ‘Call the Midwife’ addresses, such as weddings and births as well as uncomfortable topics like diseases and prejudice. 😐
It was intriguing to see how the costume designs, the music and the make-up teams get addressed in the documentary. There are aspects about ‘Call the Midwife’ you wouldn’t think twice about and it’s nice how the production team uncover how they achieved certain special effects to tell their certain stories.
It was surreal to see clips of past episodes from Series 1 to 9 before we get to Series 10 itself. Some of the episodes I’d forgotten about, since I saw the first five seasons in 2020 compared to seeing Series 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in 2021. Some of the clips contain happy moments, some unhappy moments.
It was surreal to see behind-the-scenes members wearing facemasks during the documentary, whether that’d be on set or in the post-production stages e.g. for the music of certain ‘Call the Midwife’ Series 10 episodes. Jenny Agutter even raises Covid-19 when being interviewed in the documentary.
I like how the documentary concludes with a sense of optimism about the show’s future. It seems there are more stories to tell with upcoming seasons like Series 11 and 12. I’m curious about how long ‘Call the Midwife’ will last for, since it could very well enter into the 1970s as well as the 1980s.
Speaking personally, I’m glad I’ve been able to enjoy ‘Call the Midwife’ from its humble beginnings right up it its latest season (Series 10) for the show’s 10th anniversary. It’s a credit that the show has lasted this long and it’s done well in the human storytelling about life in general during the 1950s/1960s.
I’ve also grown to know the characters more, especially ones like Trixie, Sister Julienne, Sister Monica Joan, Dr. Turner and Shelagh. Most of these characters have had very interesting journeys since the show began and I’m pleased to have checked out each season to learn more about them. 🙂
Whether the show will last for another 10 years, I don’t know. I’m sure ‘Call the Midwife’ will continue to be close to people’s hearts and I’m sure there’ll be more enjoyable stories to look forward as well as heartbreaking stories. I’m certain my parents and I will continue to see more of the show.
The DVD special features for Series 10 of ‘Call the Midwife’ are as follows. On Disc 3, as well as the behind-the-scenes ‘Christmas Special Featurette’ looking into the making of the 2020 Christmas Special with cast and crew interviews, there are the behind-the-scenes featurettes ‘New Series Featurette’, ’10 Year Anniversary Featurette’ and ‘A Message to the Fans’ to check out with cast and crew interviews.
‘Series 10, Episode 7’ rating – 8/10
‘Special Delivery’ rating – 8/10
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