Call The Midwife Season 4!

I am thrilled to announce the arrival of Call The Midwife Season 4 on Sunday March 29th on PBS! And amazingly, it is as wonderful as the last two seasons. I was trying not to read any spoilers online last fall from the UK but I did hear some happy murmuring on Twitter about the new season. They were right.

The first episode is all I have watched so far, and it was really Trixie's show this week. She had me crying a few times. Who knew the party girl from the first season had such depth? I really didn't miss Cynthia or Jenny at all! And the new midwife Barbara Gilbert (played by Charlotte Ritchie) is apparently a bit of a klutz, but is really quite adorable as an earnest Vicar's daughter transplanted to Nonnatus House.

Sister Monica Joan has some rare moments of lucidity, grumpy Sister Evangelina has a mysterious medical issue she is trying to ignore, and Chummy made barely a cameo before lurching off in a car. I was feeling very nervous for the bystanders when she was reversing with that manual transmission!

Hopefully I haven't given too much away. And I hope you will enjoy this season as much as I am. Go Trixie!

Cheers!

P.S. I can't wait for the new nurse Phyllis Crane, played in Episode 2 by the marvelous Linda Bassett (the pianist from Calendar Girls, Queenie from Larkrise to Candleford and Mrs. Jennings from the most recent Sense and Sensibility). Her character Phyllis is described as "officious". I can't wait!

Call the Midwife Christmas Day 2014!

Call the Midwife is back on Christmas Day at 8pm on PBS for a Holiday Special, so set your PVRs! It is a fabulous episode (lucky me being able to preview it!). I highly recommend it for feel-good viewing over the holidays.

The actress who plays Jenny Lee has left the show, but we get to see Vanessa Redgrave as the mature Jenny instead of just having her as narrator. Wonderful!

And we have no nonsense midwife Patsy back (played by the gloriously named Emerald Fennell) and I am so digging Trixie's new shorter hair. And her gorgeous vicar beau for that matter!

Chummy is given a big part to play in this episode as is our sweet little Cynthia who has a big decision to make with Sister Julienne's help.

So make sure if you miss it on the telly, you go to PBS.org to watch it online after Christmas day. You will not be disappointed. And remember, Season 4 of Call the Midwife starts March 29th 2015 (after Downton Abbey ends).

Yippee! I do love these ladies.

Cheers!

Call the Midwife Season 3 and Mr. Selfridge Season 2!

Chummy is back on Sunday March 30! I just previewed the first episode of Call The Midwife Season 3 and it was fabulous as usual. And lots of Chummy in this one so you know it will be good. And a (shhh) Royal Visit (shhhh).

Check local listings but in my area this one airs at 8pm as the lead in for Mr. Selfridge. Harrumph! Call the Midwife should be the main feature methinks.

Mr. Selfridge Season 2 starts next Sunday as well on PBS stations everywhere. I think 9 pm but check local listings!!!

I like this show (if I can remember back that far) but I haven't heard any buzz on the new season. I also haven't had a chance to preview the season opener yet so I can't give you any info yet.

I do love Frances O'Connor so high hopes!

Let me know what you think of these new seasons!

P.S. After watching the whole season opener of Mr. Selfridge on Sunday night, I am sort of on the fence about it. Absolutely gorgeous to look at, no doubt about that. And Frances O'Connor as Rose Selfridge is sticking up for herself and letting Jeremy Piven's big boss know where he can take his loving husband routine. Go Rose! But there is still something lacking in this series. I will continue to watch, ever hopeful that the plot will live up to the production values. I'd love to know what you think. Please comment below.

Still loving Chummy and The Midwives! xoxo

Cheers!

Call The Midwife Holiday Special Dec 29 2013

I was lucky enough to be able to preview the new Call The Midwife Holiday Special today. As much as I enjoyed last year's Christmas Special, I am happy to report that this year's was every bit as good. Prepare to cry. Maybe not as many tears as last year but still a few.

We find Sister Bernadette no longer a nun (and now going by her real name Shelagh), and preparing for her wedding to the good doctor. Speaking of Dr. Turner, he is trying to get all the children of Poplar vaccinated against polio before another outbreak. And we see lots of Chummy in this special, enjoying life as a new mother to baby Freddy, and still a Cub Scout leader!

Jenny has a new very handsome beau, and has stopped pining over that married creep. Finally! We also learn a bit about Trixie and her home life as a child.

There is a crisis in the form of an unexploded bomb from the Blitz which was discovered in the rebuilding effort in the East End of London. The neighbourhood of Nonnatus House is evacuated to a community hall, and all just before Christmas!

So what will come of Nonnatus House and our favourite nuns? Tune in to PBS on Sunday Dec 29th at 7:30 pm and find out. I think I will watch it again with you then!

Cheers!

Call the Midwife: The book is just as good as the series!

The miniseries' of Call the Midwife (both seasons) are great and the book Call the Midwife, A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times is just as brilliant. If you loved the BBC miniseries which just finished airing on PBS in North America, getting the book is a no brainer. And this is one you may want to pass on to a friend, so I was glad my family bought me the paperback for Mother's Day as I have already passed it on to my sister.

You will recognize all of the main characters. Trixie is given short shrift in this book but the story of Chummy conquering the bicycle with the help of her little friend is there and the story of Jenny's affair with a married man and her friendship with Jimmy is there. Miranda Hart makes the role of Chummy even better than it's written! Cynthia apparently had a really sexy, low voice in real life, so perhaps that casting didn't quite come through but I love Bryony Hannah in the role as she is just so adorable!

The casting of all of the nuns as well as Jenny Lee is perfection. As you read the book, it just fleshes out the already beloved characters from the series. Sister Evangelina, Sister Monica Joan and Sister Julienne are well represented in this book. Perhaps we will read more of cutie Sister Bernadette in some of the other books by Jennifer Worth which I have yet to read. Apparently there are four of them. Yay!!!

So if you are looking for some reading material while you wait for the third season (and we are talking next spring for that here in the colonies) you can't go wrong. And you will love the story of the Spanish mother with 28 children (OK, I can't remember the real number and my sis now has the book).

Cheers and happy reading!

PBS Update- The Bletchley Circle, Call the Midwife and Mr. Selfridge

I just wanted to give two of these series currently running on PBS a big thumbs up (or a 5 teacup rating, whichever you prefer) and the other one a resounding meh!

The Bletchley Circle is soooooo awesome that ITV can't possibly leave it at just one 3 episode series. Oh, please, please, please make this a recurring series. We need more mysteries solved by these brilliant code cracking females!

If you haven't yet seen this amazing series, you were able to catch up online at the PBS website: The Bletchley Circle until they took the first episode down, the stinkers.

Someone has uploaded all three episodes to YouTube. The link is here: YouTubeBletchley. Enjoy it while it lasts!

My other 5 teacup rating goes to the second season of Call the Midwife. I was a bit skeptical of whether the BBC could keep up the amazing quality of the first season but wow, they sure have. One really gets the feel of the emerging improvements in medical care in the second half of the 20th century when you watch this show. And it always seems to make me cry and yet not seem depressing somehow. I gotta read the book when this series finishes!

Just be careful when you are watching this. Inevitably, someone either male or under the age of 18 will walk into the room just as you are watching a delivery with the midwife between the poor mother's legs!!!!

Haven't been following? Catch up here: Call the Midwife Season 2

So here comes my lukewarm assessment of Mr. Selfridge. It's okayyyyyyyyy....

Two and a half teacups (with the tea running out of the half cup)? I have been watching it. I haven't been enthralled or enthusiastic but I leave it on after Call the Midwife. A friend of mine used to work out in the same gym as Jeremy Piven and described him as "very small and squirrely".  Perhaps that is part of it but the scripts must be at least partly to blame. I love the main character Agnes Towler (played by the marvelously named Aisling Loftus) and Frances O'Connor is her usual luminous self as Harry Selfridge's wife Rose.

I will give it a few more weeks however as I did enjoy the latest installment with the Suffragettes. They are dear to my heart and you will find my post devoted to the Suffragettes here: Mary Poppins and the Suffragettes.

What do y'all think of these three PBS series?

Mr. Selfridge and Call the Midwife Season 2 starting March 31 on PBS

It will be another month before we in North America get to see the new ITV/Andrew Davies series Mr. Selfridge, about the flamboyant American retailer Harry Selfridge who founded his namesake department stores in the UK in 1909. It stars Jeremy Piven playing the lead and Frances O'Connor as his wife Rose Selfridge. I was able to preview the first two episodes and I can absolutely recommend this for great Sunday night viewing. However, I think PBS missed the opportunity to retain it's Sunday night audience by delaying the airing of Mr. Selfridge until the end of March!

Doesn't Jeremy Piven look thrilled to be surrounded by those gorgeous women?

In the UK, the BBC rushed their very similar offering The Paradise (loosely based on Emile Zola's department store novel The Ladies' Paradise) to the small screen in the fall of 2012 whereas Mr. Selfridge didn't start on ITV until January 2013. 

It seems that the BBC didn't want to be burned again like when Upstairs Downstairs was pipped at the post by the superior Downton Abbey from ITV. This time the viewers and critics are torn, so there seems to be no clear winner yet in the UK. There is no word yet on when we in North America will see The Paradise.

I will admit that I am besotted with Call the Midwife, so I have also previewed the first episode of Season 2 for you (what a sacrifice I make for my online friends!). I loved it, as usual. This show is so charming and it really is "Girl Power" circa 1957. You go girls!

If you haven't seen Season 1 of Call the Midwife, many PBS stations are replaying it (Sun March 10 and 17 8-11pm) so you can catch up. Unfortunately not my local station out of Buffalo, but perhaps you will be luckier. Remember...Check Local Listings!

My review of Call the Midwife Season 1 is here. And my sister's review of the Christmas episode of Call the Midwife is here! Have fun with your Sunday nights in April my friends!

Call the Midwife Christmas Special- Guest Post by Big Sister

Below is a special guest post by my Big Sister, M.F. (minor spoilers below) If you haven't yet seen this, go to www.pbs.org/programs/call-the-midwife. Or just go ahead and read this lovely post anyway. It will only make you want to see it even more!

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We got an extra present in our Christmas stockings this week to relieve the doldrums of the post-Christmas letdown – the Call the Midwife Christmas Special which aired tonight on PBS here in North America.  And, as the special just aired on Christmas Day in Britain, I would say that we were rewarded for being extra good this year, by getting it here only 5 days after!  I think that may be a record for a British televised costume drama … 

This Special was, again, set in 1950s Poplar (a neighbourhood in the East End of London near the docks) where the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House work diligently delivering the endless stream of babies popping out of working class mothers of the area.  My comment when I saw the first series of Call the Midwife was:
“Never mind the automobile or the Internet … birth control was the greatest invention of the 20^th century!”

There are two main storylines at work in the Christmas Special – a teenage pregnancy/infant abandonment and the desperate plight of an elderly survivor of the workhouse system – all interlaced with the background story of Nurse Chummy (Miranda Hart) and the Cub Scout pack (plus many other children) putting on the Nativity Play.

In the first story, the chubby teenaged Lynette gives birth alone in the cold basement of an abandoned factory, and then leaves her son on the steps of Nonnatus House for the nuns to find.  Her fear of telling her parents and the subsequent urgent search for the birth mother (due to health complications) make for some gripping drama in the midst of the usual Christmas preparations.

In the second story, elderly ragged Mrs. Jenkins (Sheila Reid) is the woman who spent 30 years in the workhouse (until it closed in 1935 – lest we think that these were only a feature of the Victorian era) and whose five children were separated from her and subsequently “failed to thrive”.   I’m sure that my sister, Jenny, was pleased to see that the mystery of the children's fate was solved by Nurse Lee (Jessica Raine) by delving into the records of the workhouse and the birth and death records of the parish to find where they were buried – genealogy is another of her pursuits.

One of the best scenes comes when Nurse Lee and Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris) visit Mrs. Jenkins to do some primary health care (like trying to take her vital signs and giving her a bath) – the patient is very resistant until Sister Evangelina breaks the ice by breaking wind!  “Where e’er you be, let your wind go free …” says Sister Evangelina and then offers to fart in a different musical key!  Hilarious, and completely unexpected.  The scene then ends with the two health care workers gently disrobing Mrs. Jenkins and giving her a bath and gently washing her hands and back to the strains of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” – this showed the normally gruff Sister Evangelina in a much kinder light than usual and I admit that I shed a tear or two.

Altogether, the stories all plaited together nicely and resolved with a warm Christmas glow.  Perfect!

Big Sister (helping out with the blogging over the holidays!)

Pam Ferris- Actor of the Week

Pam Ferris has been in so many period dramas! Most recently cast as Sister Evangelina in Call the Midwife, now showing on PBS, she has worn many a bonnet over the years.

Pam Ferris as Ma Larkin in Darling Buds of May

Possibly best known as the warm beloved mother Ma Larkin in The Darling Buds of May. Catherine Zeta-Jones may have been the sex appeal in this show, but Ma Larkin was the character who made you want to join the Larkin family for dinner.

Pam Ferris as Mrs. General in Little Dorrit

As the horrid Mrs. General in Little Dorrit, hired to accompany the Dorrit sisters on their trip to Europe and educate them, she is wonderful and terrible all at the same time. Poor little Amy Dorrit!

Mr. Dorrit: Mrs General and I have been in conversation about you, and we agree that you scarcely feel at home here in Venice. How is this?
Amy Dorrit: I think I need a little time. Father.
Mrs. General: [sighing] "Papa" is a preferable form of address. "Father" is rather vulgar. Besides, the word "papa" gives a pretty form to the lips. "Papa", "potatoes", "poultry", "prunes" and "prism" are all very good words for the lips - especially "prunes" and "prism".

Pam Ferris as Grace Poole in Jane Eyre 2006

Perfectly horrible again as Grace Poole in Jane Eyre 2006, the alcoholic minder of the crazy woman in the attic. Wonderful role to play but not a warm fuzzy role.

Pam Ferris as Mrs Boffin in Our Mutual Friend

As the friendly Mrs. Boffin in the Dickens adaptation Our Mutual Friend 1998, she gets to play a working woman who, with her husband, comes into a fortune. She retains her heart of gold while she tries to negotiate the world of the monied upper classes.

Pam Ferris as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda

As one of the most horrible characters in literature, Pam Ferris plays Headmistress Miss Trunchbull from the film based on the book Matilda by Roald Dahl. Evil, evil, evil...but at least Matilda gets revenge in the end!

Pam Ferris as Aunt Marge in Harry Potter

As the nasty Aunt Marge Dursley in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Pam Ferris gets "blown up" by Harry who accidentally uses his magical powers after being enraged by the things that Marge says.

Aunt Marge: I still don't like your tone, boy. If you can speak of your beatings in that casual way, they clearly aren't hitting you hard enough. Petunia, I'd write to them if I were you. Make it clear that you approve the use of extreme force in this boy's case.

Pam Ferris as Mrs Dollop in Middlemarch

In a small part in the 1994 BBC production of Middlemarch Pam Ferris plays Mrs. Dollop, the opinionated landlady of The Tankard in Slaughter Lane.

Pam Ferris as Sister Evangelina in Call the Midwife

But my favourite role for Pam Ferris so far is Sister Evangelina in Call the Midwife. This character (and the entire miniseries) has a wonderful balance of humour and heart. Sister Evangelina makes me laugh and cry all in the same episode. She is mostly a fun, no nonsense character who is likely drawn from a real person as the miniseries is based on the memoirs of midwife Jennifer Worth. I can't wait for more Call the Midwife. Apparently there is a Christmas special and another series coming next year. Yay!!!


Sister Evangelina:  Ah, Camilla Fortescue-Cholmeley-Browne?
Chummy Browne:  I generally answer to "Chummy". My pa used to say "Long dogs need short names".
Sister Evangelina:  Follow me. And mind your head. I understand you qualified by a whisker, Nurse Fortescue-Cholmeley-Browne.
Chummy Browne:  I did pass. It was a bit of a scrape.

Call The Midwife- PBS this Sunday Sept 30!

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.

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.

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)