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Check it Out: ‘Call the Midwife’ transports viewer to 1950s England

By Jan Johnston

Published: June 14, 2015, 12:00am

Review: "Call the Midwife, Season One," directed by Philippa Lowthorpe and Jamie Payne (Warner Home Video, 2 discs, 355 minutes)

My TV viewing habits are, well, predictable and narrowly focused. I kind of hate to admit this, but when I get home from work, the highlight of my evening comes around at 7 o’clock: that’s right, the “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” hour. I guess I’m a little bit embarrassed about this, because it’s more fun to let you think that my life is a constant whirlwind of excitement and adventure. Well, now you know it isn’t. So there.

The downside of having such a limited TV routine is that I often miss out on some pretty terrific shows. Take “Call the Midwife” for example. This BBC series debuted in the U.S. in 2012, yet I am just now becoming aware of it. Forget “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”; I can’t even keep up with quality programs! (And if that sounds like a slam against the Kardashians, it is. To those who follow their antics, er, activities, please accept my not-very-sincere apology).

If you, too, are behind the curve when it comes to what’s on television, let me just say this: thank goodness for the library. Did you know that our DVD collection includes many popular TV series, as well as movies? When the “Downton Abbey” series passed me by, I was able to catch up by checking out Seasons 1 through 5. And now that I’m turning into a big fan of “Call the Midwife,” I can watch the previous seasons just by using my library card.

What a great deal!

Now that you know about the library’s fabulous DVD collection, you might be wondering why I’m so enthralled with “Call the Midwife.” First of all, it’s a BBC production, and the folks at BBC have a proven track record of producing high-quality programs. Secondly, the series is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, who was a practicing nurse and midwife in 1950s Britain.

But mostly, it’s the acting that makes the story come alive. Season one of the series introduces viewers to Worth’s character, Jennifer Lee, a young woman with a middle-class upbringing who studies nursing and midwifery, and ends up delivering babies in the poverty-stricken East End of London. Her “home” is a nursing convent called the Nonnatus House, and with the help of the sisters and the other young midwives living at Nonnatus, Lee learns about life and death and what it means for her patients to live in such impoverished conditions.

The 1950s is a time of rebuilding and renewal for war-damaged London, but it is a slow process, and for the poorest of families, rebuilding the infrastructure — not to mention lives — takes even longer. This period is also prepill — birth control pill, that is — and contraceptives that were available were rarely used. Large families were the norm, and in the poorest areas especially, going to the hospital to have a baby just wasn’t an option. Thus, midwives were in great demand, and many newly graduated nurses found themselves working in the East End.

Watching an episode of “Call the Midwife” lets me spend an hour in another time and place. From the very harsh conditions many young families faced on a daily basis — sub-standard housing, low-paying, back-breaking jobs, inadequate medical care — to those rare moments of joy when a new mom holds her newborn for the first time, I feel as though I am shadowing the midwives and the sisters as they offer comfort and solace to those in need. It’s always remarkable to me when I connect strongly with characters on television or film even though I know they’re not real, even though I will never be able to experience that particular time or place. That’s the power and magic of storytelling: the ability to transport viewers to another world.

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