tahooti I stumbled onto this series via Netflix and i am sad i did not catch it when it was being currently broadcast. however, since i am catching up i am binge watching and fully enjoying this.granted, this is taking place in London and, being that i am the United States, i find the information regarding the times, conditions, etc. to be interesting. not that there wasn't such conditions here in the states as my grandmother, a nurse, could have attested. the naïve desire to help that is established in the first episode that jenny possessed is gradually eroded with the hard facts of life in the east end. as she admits to herself and others, she has never been exposed to the sights and conditions she works in and, through time, learns to navigate through the trials, superstitions, traditions of the times.the other nurses seem to be true representatives of the kind of nurses that my grandmother described to me. there is the professional side of their duties but, in reality, they were young women just beginning their lives, wanting to enjoy themselves even in the confines of a religious house. above this all, the sisters of the house show that they have learned to balance their devotion to g-d as well as the facts of the life that their community lives and contends with. they try to remain as non judgmental but, being human, they are subjected to failing to do so consistently. their humanity they exhibit within the parameters of their faith system is amazing and it makes me feel that i wish there were more examples of it in real life and not just in good pseudo-nonfiction.if there is anyone who would like to experience the lives of women living together, both secular and non-secular, working under very trying and sometimes deprivation from what we now consider the ordinary and expected, watching the series. i can hardly wait until i catch up with the new episodes since i am just entering season 3.

bshaef This is one of the best shows on tv. I discovered it two years ago while watching a Masterpiece presentation. Haven't missed an episode since. I prefer shows like The Americans, The Walking Dead, Fargo, etc. but this one struck a chord somewhere in the depths of my psyche and I instantly liked the stories, the scenery of 1960's London and all of the characters. This is television at its best.

Ersbel Oraph The script is made by some apartment script school, butchering a very readable text. The text is concerned with the woman's situation and welfare back in the 1950s after putting things in context, as the 1960s brought the pill, which increased the well being and the life expectancy of women in that part of the World. The script is concerned with lying and painting a rosy look of the life, long live the concerned leaders! The problems abound at every minute. The lovely scene (in the book) when the author comes to the nuns, is completely changed and the characters are different (in the script). This is what low quality education does: poor script writing is one side effect.Apart from butchering the original text for mysterious reasons that dull the drama and lose the humor, the whole thing can be separated in two: mistakes out of stupidity and mistakes out of kissing behinds. The stupidity is just low quality education. No, the man is teached to hold the woman who is giving birth that particular way from the 2000s, when men assisting at birth has become common. The technique did not exist back in the 1950s. The same way as some of the bleeds shown on screen are the sign of certain death in a few minutes, even in 2010s and in a hospital.The worst part is the rear kissing and the cheap nationalist propaganda, none of which is present in the book. The children with a sweater and no pants are nowhere to be seen. East End is a trendy neighborhood with rich people dressing a la mode. The men is specified in the book several times have nothing to do with the babies beyond the point of conception and the income. In this series they can even be supportive. The author specifies the men were not accepted at births. Tough luck, they are well dressed, well groomed, and ready to support the wife in this parody. The doctors are too expensive in the book, in here they can come with everything to make a small Emergency Room in the bedroom. In the book sometimes there is no running water, the toilets are shared, installed downstairs and to a side of the building. So the stench can be terrible and the hygiene not there. There are lice and other parasites. The children are half naked precisely to avoid changing the diapers. Yet in the screen version one of the local women is shocked by the idea of a child pissing in the waiting room.The actors are of low quality. The script is xenophobic. The East Enders are okay with the hospital, is the Spanish woman who can't even speak English who refuses to go to the hospital. The extras move like drones. The clothes are clean, colorful, and new! So a book that could be considered feminist turns into another romantic 'good old times' story when the women were very energetic after 14 hours of work with half the daily needed calories and who loved to give birth and have lots and lots of children from an early age.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

Aimee Despite the deviations from the original book by Jennifer worth I truly enjoy watching this programme. As a midwife myself I find it really difficult to watch any TV show that portrays pregnancy and child birth due to the often inaccurate and unlikely events that unfold. Call the midwife is the only programme I can watch that portrays childbirth without shouting and screaming at the TV wishing the researchers had put more effort in.spoiler alert :- The show highlights not only the difficulties faced by maternity services in the 50s but also the development and progression of services with the introduction of the NHS and the move away from home birth and towards hospital deliveries. The deliveries are mostly realistic and show many complications that women face that just aren't written about in other TV shows such as inverted uterus, eclampsia, still birth and babies born with abnormalities. The characters are endearing and the story lines have often left me in tears of sadness and joy. Each episode is an emotional roller coaster. A real pleasure to watch.