Call the Midwife – Season 9, Episode 1

By starrymag | April 5, 2020

By: Ellie Dolan-Yates

 

Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) and Nurse Lucille (Leonie Elliott) deliver a baby as the surrounding buildings are demolished causing dust to fall from the ceiling. At Nonnatus House Trixie (Helen George) is excited to try out her new electric lady shaver, but Valerie (Jennifer Kirby) warns she could take her shin off. Trixie takes her chances as Valerie rants about how much tights cost.

 

The news of Winston Churchill’s death spreads and Dr Turner (Stephen McGann) says it’s what came after the war that changed society, the NHS was nothing to do with Churchill’s party. Shelagh (Laura Main) says it’s not a time for politics. Dr Turner carries on brushing Flopsy as she can’t be sent back to the girls’ class un-groomed and undernourished. The phone rings and it’s Tim (Max Macmillan) calling from boarding school. The family answer and Flopsy is left to her own devices.

 

Nurse Crane (Linda Bassett) and Lucille visit a pregnant woman named Dena (Jenny Rainsford) at a homeless shelter. Nurse Crane has heard bad things about the shelter and, as they climb the squalid stairs, she says she can hear bed bugs in the walls. Nurse Crane wipes dead bugs from the bedside table as she sees to Dena whose son Terry (Jordan A. Nash) is sat beside her reading. He’s been studying for his eleven plus exam with an encyclopedia that Dena picked up from the market. The labor pains were a false alarm, but Lucille tells Dena that she is under their care now. Dena reveals she has been waiting seven months for a council flat. Once back at Nonnatus House, Nurse Crane gives the Housing Association a piece of her mind over the telephone and secures the keys to a flat for Dena and Terry.

 

Sister Julienne answers the doors at Nonnatus House to a group of surveyors who tell her that the building is set to be torn down soon. Meanwhile, Lucille and Valerie are lying in bed with cucumbers over their eyes, in case they get filmed during the broadcast of Churchill’s state funeral. Trixie tells them about a competition she’s found. If they send in pictures of their legs, they have a chance of winning a years’ supply of tights. Lucille is hesitant, but Trixie tells her that her ankles are “exquisite.” Lucille reminds her that it’s a leg competition and legs go right up to “other parts of the anatomy.” Later, Trixie persuades Lucille to pose for photos with her and Valerie to enter the workplace category.

 

Fred (Cliff Parisi) is sorting his medals for the funeral when he gazes at a picture of Betty. Violet (Annabelle Apsion) tells him Betty has a lovely smile. Fred tearfully curses the Blitz and Violet says she’s been thinking about her Bert too, but they have to focus on what they have now – life is better for everyone than it’s ever been. Following the funeral, Fred is at Nonnatus House fixing the fuse box. On his way out, he hears a baby cry. He realizes that the crying is coming from a dustbin. He lifts the lid to find the baby wrapped in a nightdress. Whilst examining the baby, Dr Turner says that the umbilical cord was tied with purple thread, not overseen by a hospital or a professional. Sergeant Woolf (Trevor Cooper) has hospitals are on the alert to look out for the mother. Sister Frances (Ella Bruccoleri) wants to name the baby before she’s taken to St Cuthbert’s. Fred suggests Primrose as they are little flowers that turn up in the cold.

 

At night a woman (Emma Lowndes) approaches Sister Frances at the surgery saying they want to leave a little yellow jacket for Primrose. The woman explains that she’s seen Primrose in the papers. Frances says that Primrose is at St. Cuthbert’s and as Frances answers the phone to a journalist, the woman reaches over to take the jacket back. Sister Frances notices that breast milk is leaking onto the woman’s shirt and heads out after her, but the woman has gone. At the police station Sister Frances explains to Sergeant Woolf that the woman who approached her was lactating and she knew the baby was wrapped in a nightdress, something that wasn’t mentioned in the papers. Sergeant Woolf asks Frances how to spell lactating.

 

At school Terry is falling asleep at his desk. Clearly unwell, he heads home and lets himself in with the key attached to some string through the letterbox. As he enters the flat he grimaces and holds his throat. He weakly calls for his mum before laying himself down on their mattress. However, Dena is at the maternity home going through a complicated birth. Lucille tells her that they’ll get a message to Terry. Miss Higgins (Georgie Glenn) arrives at the flat to find Terry collapsed on the floor. She hurries away to find help. Dr Turner examines Terry and his breath is clearly a cause for concern. As Terry opens his mouth wider, we see that there is a white mark in his throat to the top of his mouth. Terry has Diphtheria, something which Dr Turner describes as medieval. In what is scarily impeccable timing for the release of this episode, Terry is placed on an isolation ward and his classmates are all sent letters regarding them and their families being tested and quarantined. Sadly, Dena is not able to see Terry or her baby. All poor Terry can think about is missing out on his eleven plus exam, bless him.

 

Trixie answers the phone to Sergeant Woolf who explains that a distressed woman has been found at St Cuthbert’s claiming to be Primrose’s mother. However, she won’t reveal her identity. Mother Mildred (Miriam Margolyes) goes with Trixie to the police station to see if they can talk to her. Mother Mildred notices that the woman is still leaking breast milk and tells her it’s because “[her] body is weeping for a reunion with [her] child.” The mother says that she doesn’t want to tell a member of the church what happened, so Trixie takes her to the toilets to have a chat. The woman, who we now know is Brenda, reveals that she gave birth alone and bit into her cardigan sleeve so that no one would hear her. She also reveals that she is the priest’s housekeeper.

 

Mother Mildred goes to visit Father Duncombe (Alec Newman) who tells her that he didn’t know Brenda was pregnant. Although, I can already tell he’s dodgy. Father Duncombe explains that he took Brenda on because one of the elderly priests needed extra help with their laundry. Father Duncombe suggests that the child be adopted as Brenda has a history of mental illness. To make things seem extra odd, Mother Mildred finds a sewing basket in Father Duncombe’s study containing the same thread that was used to tie the umbilical cord.

 

As a bit of light relief during this episode, remember Flopsy the rabbit who the Turner girls brought home from school to look after? Well, it turns out she is not a she and now the Turners have more rabbits to look after!

 

At St Cuthbert’s Brenda holds baby Primrose and tells her she’s sorry. Mother Mildred says that Brenda and Primrose can stay at Nonnatus House. Father Duncombe arrives wanting to baptise Primrose as Catholic, but Brenda has already baptised her as she knows anyone can do that. Father Duncombe asks to be alone with Brenda, but Mother Mildred is having none of it. Father Duncombe takes a patronizing tone with Brenda saying that she needs support and she can’t give Primrose the care she needs. In fact, he’s already started arranging an adoption! Mother Mildred intervenes and gives Father Duncombe a piece of her mind.

 

As Trixie helps Brenda change, she notices that Brenda has bruises all over her back. Brenda reveals that her husband was abusive to her. She married straight from the orphanage and wants better for Primrose. Meanwhile, Father Duncombe tells Mother Mildred that Social Services will scrutinize Brenda’s mental health and she is now unemployed, unless she gives the baby up! He also explains that the father will have rights. I’m guessing “father” has a double meaning here… Mildred tells Brenda to think carefully about naming the father on the birth certificate. However, Brenda says she doesn’t want to be seen as a slut. Mildred warns her that the named father will have a right to fight against Brenda’s choice.

 

Back at the surgery more cases of Diphtheria are confirmed and it seems as though it has originated from the homeless shelter that Terry and Dena lived in. However, it looks like the source of the first case has moved on and it will be hard to find out who initially carried the disease. Although, one of Terry’s classmates never got the memo about quarantine and is tested at the school. It appears that she has a large sore on her arm which started as an insect bite before they left Pakistan. The girl also lived at the homeless shelter when her family first arrived in England. Dr Turner wants the homeless shelter fumigated.

 

In a nice end to the episode, Terry gets to take the eleven plus at home and Shelagh and Patrick give him Tim’s old Grammar School blazer for passing. Violet has framed Betty’s photo so that Fred can put it on display. Mildred announces that she is taking Brenda and Primrose to the mother house with her and Trixie, Valerie and Lucille have come runners up in the leg competition winning them a selection of Tutti-frutti tights! Sadly, Nonnatus House has been issued with a demolition notice.