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Casey’s Reviews
Call the Midwife, Series 13
The ultimate bingeable ‘comfort show’ is still chugging along
My mother-in-law got me into Call the Midwife when my husband and I first started dating, over seven years ago. We binged the first few seasons and I was instantly hooked on this wholesome British period drama about midwives living in a convent in post-war London.
The show is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth (née Lee), who worked as a nurse and midwife for an Anglican religious order of nuns in the East End during the 1950s. The actress playing “Jenny” left the show in Series 3, and yet the show has continued for ten years, developing new storylines involving historically accurate medical advances and political controversies as nurses come and go throughout the years.
The heart of the series is an elderly nun, Sister Monica Joan, and the convent’s handyman, Fred Buckle, both of whom provide comedic relief when things get emotional, as the show often veers into serious topics — such as the criminalization of abortion and homosexuality, racism, adoption, immigration, teenage pregnancy, and serious diseases and medical situations, including stillbirths, the thalidomide crisis, polio, various birth defects, and pregnancy complications. Amid these serious topics are light-hearted plotlines…
