Call the Midwife- Season 10, Episode 7

By: Ellie Yates

Sister Hilda (Fenella Woolgar) is being left to run Nonnatus House whilst Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) is on retreat at the Mother House. And what a time to be left in charge…

Sister Frances (Ella Bruccoleri) is rushed to deliver Doreen’s (Scarlett Brookes) baby. When she gets there, she’s shocked by the conditions of the flats. There’s no running water and Sister Frances has to move Doreen to the sofa due to her mattress sagging so much. Back at Nonnatus, Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) tells Trixie (Helen George) that Lisbon Buildings have always been unfit to live in. Trixie arrives at the flat with hot water and some extra supplies. After giving birth to a baby girl, Doreen becomes upset at everything being “such a mess.”

Sister Frances stays with Doreen overnight as there isn’t a bed at the maternity home until the next day. During the night Sister Frances sees a rat poking its head from beneath the baby’s blanket. After screaming the building down, she starts hitting the rat. The next day Trixie comes to take Doreen to the maternity home and Sister Frances marches across Poplar, dead rat in hand, to see Violet (Annabelle Apsion). Taking no notice of the customer in Violet’s shop, Frances displays the rat on the counter and tells Violet this is how people live in Poplar, where Violet sits on the Housing Committee.

Sister Hilda gives Frances a telling off (as much as Sister Hilda can give a telling off) for taking the dead rat to Violet’s shop. A meeting is arranged by Violet with a member of the board from Hale Woods & Sons. Trixie says that they need to meet at Doreen’s flat so that they can see the conditions for themselves. It turns out that the company is actually Aylward & Sons and the representative is none other than Matthew Aylward (Olly Rix). After stepping on a cockroach, Matthew is horrified to learn that three or four tenants share a kitchen on the landing. Trixie is equally horrified when she learns that Matthew’s family own the buildings. Matthew learns of the true conditions of the flats which the medical officer has declared unfit for human habitation. Matthew says he will talk to the tenant landlords before leaving. Trixie follows him and shouts at him and throws Doreen’s baby’s toy at him.

The next day Matthew rings Nonnatus to apologize but Trixie tells him the people living in the flats deserve an apology not her. It gets worse when Matthew decides to pay Nonnatus a visit, but everyone has bedbugs that Frances bought back from Doreen’s flat. Trixie is still trying to get over all of her clothes, including her boudoir mules lined with ostrich feathers, having to go to the council fumigator so tells Matthew he will have to wait. When they do meet Matthew explains that his family have been in the wrong for a hundred years, since they bought the flats as a side-line investment. He wants to make amends. After finally listening to Trixie read Fiona’s letter, Matthew makes a £1,000 donation to Nonnatus House in memory of Fiona. He says he will do this every year for as long as they continue their work in Poplar.

Miss Higgins (Georgie Glen) discharges Timothy (Max Macmillan) from his duties at the surgery, as he is off to medical school. She gifts him her pen and tells him she hopes he writes more legible prescriptions than his father. The Turners put together a meal for Timothy whilst the kids are in bed and Dr Turner gives him his first glass of wine, which Timothy admits isn’t his first glass of wine. One of his classmates at boarding school smuggled some in, but the picture of the nun on the bottle put him off a bit. Shelagh (Laura Main) and Dr Turner (Stephen McGann) are proud as punch when Timothy tries his doctor coat on. Later, the children put on a play to say how proud they are of Timothy and will miss him.

Lucille (Leonie Elliot) welcomes Sylvia (Charlotte Hamblin) to a class at the maternity clinic. Sylvia is about to adopt a baby as she can’t have kids. Sylvia is adopting her sister Blanche’s (Madeline Worall) baby. Blanche already has four daughters, two of which have left home. However, she doesn’t want another child and knows how much her “baby” sister Sylvia has always wanted one. Blanche gives birth to a boy and says Sylvia should hold him. After thanking her sister, Sylvia hands the baby to Blanche for her to hold and Blanche says she loves him just like she would any other nephew. Blanche gifts Sylvia a silver cup with space for the baby’s name to be engraved. Sylvia decides on Justin. When Dr Turner examines Justin, he confirms that he has Downs Syndrome.

Sylvia is upset by the news and Blanche tries to reassure her, but she leaves the room. Later that night Blanche goes to talk to Justin and tells him he doesn’t look like a Justin, before picking him up to hold him. The next day Sylvia says Justin will have to go into a home and Blanche tells her the only home he’s going to is hers. After arguing with Sylvia, Blanche says she will keep the baby and call him Robert. Blanche’s daughters fall in love with Robert, but her husband Walter (Michael Begley) is worried about how people will treat him.

When Walter later sees Reggie (Daniel Laurie) in the pub with Fred (Cliff Parisi) he runs out. After Fred follows him and invites him to their house, Walter admits that when he was younger he threw stones at a boy like Robert and Reggie. Fred tells Walter that Reggie taught him how to love more and Robert will do the same for him. Reggie pays Robert a visit and, along with Robert’s family, takes him for a walk in the pram. Sylvia also visits and hands Blanche the silver cup, engraved with Robert.

Nancy (Megan Cusack) stops by the orphanage where her daughter Colette lives and when she is told by one of the nuns that she shouldn’t be there without prior arrangement. Nancy says she’s learnt more about her rights. The nun reminds her that she has agreed to pretend that Colette is her sister and if she doesn’t abide by the terms agreed with the orphanage that she won’t be allowed to see her at all. Nancy does get to see Colette and when she removes her cardigan Nancy notices some pretty nasty bruises on Colette’s arm. Colette won’t tell Nancy who gave her the bruises and the nun basically tells Nancy that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in terms of behavior issues. Nancy says if Colette is such a trouble, she will bring her up herself.

Lucille notices that Nancy hasn’t slept in her bed and Sister Monica Joan says that she will have gone to her daughter. Sister Hilda calls the orphanage and speaks to the angry nun, but doesn’t get much luck. Nancy realizes where she’s staying isn’t safe when she can’t pay for the room. The landlord says he will wait if she can be “kind” to him. Nancy manages to shut him out, but not after getting a cut on her face in the process. Nancy takes Colette to Nonnatus and everyone is quite shocked when Sister Monica Joan sticks up for her. Nancy says that she wants to qualify as a midwife and no longer wants to keep her relationship to Colette a secret. Sister Hilda tells Nancy that she can live at Nonnatus and a suitable, local foster family will be found to take care of Colette until Nancy finishes her training.

Cyril (Zephryn Taitte) is grieving for his grandfather who has recently passed. He says that he knew he would never see him again when he left for England, but it’s still hit him hard. He’s unable to attend the funeral, so Lucille suggests having a prayer meeting at the same time as the funeral. She says soon enough they’ll be going home to get married. Realizing that it will end up being a long engagement whilst they work out whose home country to have the wedding in, they decide to get married in Poplar at Christmas. They do, after all, feel like they have a family there too.