SERIES 6, EPISODE 7
Please feel free to comment on my review.
In this ‘Call the Midwife’ episode, we return to a storyline that was assumed to be closed in Series 5. As it turns out, the after-effects of the thalidomide scandal take their toll as we find out in this story.
This episode features the return of Liz White as Rhoda Mullucks. If you recall, Rhoda is the mother of her disabled daughter Susan who had her deformed arms and legs in Episodes 1 and 8 of Series 5. 😐
Rhoda is distraught when her daughter Susan is rejected by a nursery as they consider her to be ‘ill’. Rhoda wants to find a way to get Susan accepted in modern society while considered being a ‘freak’.
Stephen McGann as Dr. Turner is guilt-ridden from what happened to Rhoda’s daughter Susan during the thalidomide scandal as well as to all the other babies. So he offers to help Rhoda with this.
He arranges to take Rhoda and her husband Chris Reilly as Bernie to see a specialist unit who can provide Susan the fitting of prosthetic limbs. In that way, Susan might be more accepted in society. 🙂
However, Bernie has objections to this procedure as he doesn’t want her daughter Susan to go down that route of having prosthetic limbs. It becomes a struggle for Rhoda with overcoming her husband.
There’s a point when Rhoda takes her daughter off to the specialist unit to spend a week there without her husband knowing. It is something Bernice and their other two kids are not happy about.
Thankfully, Rhoda is given hope when she meets Claire Price as Lydia Timpton. Lydia’s a similarly affected parent who shares with Rhoda what occurred when her son has deformed arms being born.
The Rhoda/Susan subplot is resolved happily when Bernie agrees to the procedure of Susan having prosthetic limbs. There is even a meeting where parents share their deformed children at the end. 🙂
Whilst all of this happening, Linda Bassett as Nurse Crane faces an unexpected crisis. She helps to deliver the latest baby of Melody Grove as Carrie Antoine, whose husband is of Jamaican descent. 🙂
After this has happened, she encourages Victoria Yeates as Sister Winifred the chance to drive behind the wheel of her car. Apparently, Sister Winifred has not taken her driving seriously lately. 😐
But when Nurse Crane gets back behind the wheel with Sister Winifred’s dodgy driving in question (I assume they didn’t have L plates behind cars then), she accidentally ‘runs over’ a boy on the road. 😮
That boy happens to be one of Carrie’s sons – the mother whom Nurse Crane recently delivered her latest baby. Crane is in shock and needs the support of the other midwives to prove her innocence. 🙂
She also needs Carrie’s support in order to prevent prosecution and allow her to resume her work. It turns out that Carrie’s son whom Nurse Crane ran over wasn’t meant to be in the street he was in! 😐
Ben Caplan also makes a return appearance as Sgt. Peter Noakes in the episode. This happens to be his last appearance in the series too. I wonder what happened to him and Chummy afterwards here.
I like how Judy Parfitt as Sister Monica Joan encourages and persuades Nurse Crane to resume her duties when she’s cleared of all charges. She even accompanies her to attend to a mother in need. 🙂
Thankfully, the delivery of the mother’s baby is successful and the mother even thanks Nurse Crane graciously for her efforts. Hopefully this has all restored Nurse Crane’s confidence to drive her car. 🙂
Meanwhile, Helen George as Trixie becomes suspicious of her new date Jack Hawkins as Christopher Dockerill. She thinks he may be seeing another woman. She confronts him so he can explain himself.
It turns out Christopher was previously married and had a daughter he was seeing. Helen overcomes her anxieties and eventually shares with him about the previous alcoholism that she had in Series 4.
There’s news from Kate Lamb as Delia about Patsy’s father having died in Hong Kong. But there’s no news to say about what’s become of Patsy. I wonder if we’ll see her again before Series 6 concludes.
Series 6, Episode 7 has been a moving episode and I was moved to tears by the end concerning the Rhoda/Susan story and the Nurse Crane story. I suppose that’s what good ‘Call the Midwife’ does. 🙂
‘Series 6, Episode 7’ rating – 8/10
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