L'amore e la vita - Call the Midwife

As I was a student nurse in the East End of London during the mid fifties,(now an ex-pat living in Mexico) this series brings back many memories. I'm glad that some episodes include general nursing and even male patients as well as midwifery. Perhaps doctors were not always as good as the nurses in those days.I even remember an anaesthetist who sat doing his crossword puzzles during operations and no one dared utter a word of reproach.

Now that the East End is suddenly fashionable, even Shoreditch and Brick Lane, what has happened to Wapping where I trained and which used to be so scruffy?

One thing has changed for the better. In those far off days when a woman was admitted with an attempted abortion, euphemistically called "incomplete abortion", the police had to be notified and a policewoman would sit by the bed (drinking tea with the night nurse) until the unfortunate patient (who probably already had half a dozen children at least) was well enough to be arrested.

If you want history at its truth, watch a documentary. As entertainment this show has it all. Every episode has had me in tears from either laughter or poignancy. The casting is perfect and beautifully shot. It really shows the diverse community that has embedded itself in our culture today. Who cares if the docks were not in the right place! The show is about people coming together in tough times and bonding with a community regardless of class and colour. It makes me yearn for that kind of spirit in todays world where everyone has so much and yet is never satisfied. I really hope the BBC invest in a new series - I already miss Miranda!

**UPDATE AFTER SEASON 6: If I could mark 11 stars, that would be it. The episodes about the Thalidomide children were hard but very well focused and treated. I am intrigued at how they film the scenes with just born babies in the very hands of the actors, with wide shots, not just close-ups. Call the Midwife is a most humanistic show indeed, focused on believable, realistic positive values. In a time when humanism seems to be disgraced and devalued everywhere, it is most welcome in my screen.***

This show is extraordinary.

It portrays so vividly the changes of an era in Great Britain, when the latter half of the 20th century blasted into people's daily lives at poor East End London, with all its hopes, marvels, progress, and shifts from a traditional to a modern lifestyle.

The performances are brilliant; the characters are as lovable as well-written; the atmosphere is perfectly recreated, and though quite serious health and social issues are crudely shown along the episodes, the tone is always permeated with hope, love and joy of living.

We do not come from a Christian upbringing, and I am not a Catholic, but I strongly sympathize with the humanistic and sensible approach of Nonnatus House's team of nuns and midwives, where tolerance, acceptance and care for life ranks higher than dogma or empty beliefs.

It is very hard to write a really deep, philosophical and poetic show while maintaining a light-hearted spirit and lots of humour, and Call the Midwife really makes it in a masterly way.

I have to say it gets better and better as the seasons pass, always intertwining the main characters' personal stories and individual cases with relevant and updated issues of public health and bioethics.

By the way, the admirable British public health system, which made wonders in the 50s and 60s and promoted equal access to safety, well-being and human development, also becomes a magnificent political statement in our own age, all the more appreciated in a retrospective look.

There is nothing to complain about of this show, which exerts an honest, compelling, deeply satisfying magnetism on viewers.

For those of us who love motherhood, babies and pregnancies, there is the unique plus of rejoicing at the sight of so many just born babies at the moment of delivery, in a remarkably natural and non-sensationalist feat of cinematography. You can feel the unmistakable miracle of life in each episode, with its sufferings and joys, which is so unusual among a current TV grid full of violence, special effects, overt sex, glorified evil and frenzied action.

Kudos to BBC! Yes, they have made it again, once more!

The first three seasons, based on the books by. Jennifer Worth, were among my favorites of all time. It had sentiment but not sentimentality, and dealt with the real problems of people in the East End of London and the women who provided them the service they needed. A lot of the cast changed over the years, but generally kept up the quality, and some characters who were rather stereotypical in the first couple years were allowed to mature, but the show continued to deal with real problems, such as, birth control, the strengths and weaknesses of the National Health service, the effect of certain drugs on pregnancy, etc. The Christmas shows are particularly wonderful. The past couple of years, however, have started to get away from the original idea of dealing with health and societal issues into more of a soap opera. Season 13 was a disappointment, and hope the writers either get back to the issue oriented approach or recognize it is time to wrap it up.

Whether or not this series' depiction of the East End in the 50's is completely accurate or not seems of little relevance to me. The characters are very likable and the acting, even by the guest actors, is brilliant. However, the main reason I love and wholeheartedly recommend Call the Midwife is because it is so well written, without avoiding the harsh realities of life yet filled with hope and incredible human connection. Miraculously, it manages this without ever becoming cheesy. Every episode leaves me feeling proud to be a human being. I don't think many TV series are able or even try to achieve this and it feels especially important in our times when faith in humanity seems to be in decline.