Call the Midwife: Season Five Recap and Reaction

Well, season five of Call the Midwife has come to a close. This year, an overlaying theme was the horrible drug, thalidomide. The first episode features a baby born without real arms or legs, just little stubs instead, but at least this baby is healthy. A few episodes later, a baby is born with deformations so bad that you can’t distinguish its gender and it doesn’t survive the night, leaving the mother devastated, having never even held her baby. Dr. Turner (Stephen McGann) is likewise upset and confused when the drug is recalled without much evidence of its failure until he and his wife (Laura Main) do their own research, revealing that though the mothers themselves were not prescribed the drug, they had family members who were and they took the pills, perhaps the true cause behind their babies’ problems.

This show dealt with plenty of heavy issues, including an unmarried teacher who becomes pregnant after having an affair with a married man. She loses her job, her room at a boarding house and nearly dies after self-aborting. She was sadly left with little choice. It is not like today where it is illegal to fire a woman solely for becoming pregnant. Sister Winifred (Victoria Yeates) feels dreadful for having judged her so harshly. In the end, the patient survives, isn’t prosecuted but lost everything, having had a hysterectomy.

Typhoid is had, nearly killing a new mother. There is also a Pretty Woman like plot, with a former prostitute unable to deal with her good fortune, having married a wealthy older man and even leaves her newborn daughter before finally finding her way and realizing that she is good enough. She returns home.

A young man almost kills himself, resigned to a life of factory work after impregnating his young girlfriend, only then she suffers a miscarriage. Despite her extreme albeit short-lived sadness, this is ultimately better. The father is able to go to the university and have a real future, one that he wanted.

There is also attacks on young women in the streets including Sister Mary Cynthia (Bryony Hannah) who finally comes forward to the police allowing the man to be arrested. The other women do not, and who can blame them? One was afraid that she would get in trouble for selling her body while the other thought she would be blamed for temporarily leaving her infant alone in his pram.

And then there is Trixie (Helen George) who still attends her AA meetings, though she is private and mostly close to the vest about the nature of her standing appointment. But she is moving on, teaching an aerobics class and getting over Tom (Jack Ashton).

Speaking of Tom, he is dating Barbara (Charlotte Ritchie) and though it does get off to a rocky start as Barbara does not wish to hurt Trixie, she does have deep feelings for him and they work through the issues. In fact, I am surprised that they do not get engaged at the end of the season.

Instead, we lose Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris) a devastating loss all-around. She died, happy having regained her nerve to help with a newborn beautiful baby. She had recently suffered a stroke.

This season covered a lot of ground and there were both plenty of good times and bad times, just as all the other seasons also had. There was magnificent performances both by series regulars and the numerous guest stars each episode features. The setting, costumes and authenticity cannot be matched. Everything is so painfully accurate. This is easily my favorite show of all time.

One can only wonder what lies ahead as the pill has been introduced.