Call The Midwife!

[Duncan_Barrett]

What a dramatic story!

It feels like Sunday nights won't be the same without Call The Midwife, now that we've had the last episode. I've written a blog about the TV adaption, and how it relates to the original books, here - http://www.thesugargirls.com/call-the-midwife.  Some of the women I interviewed for The Sugar Girls really didn't like the TV show - they felt it presented a distorted view of the East End in the 1950s that wasn't how they remembered it.  I'd love to hear what Forum members think about this.

Best wishes,
Duncan

[Alf still]

[quote author

 Ducan.
           i agree with some of the women you interviewed for the SugarGirls,when they say that Call the Midwife
           presented a distorted view of the East End in the 1950s.I lived in the Custom House area from the time i was born in 1935 until 1970 when i moved out to Essex and i cannot remember seeing the type of some of the poverty as shown in the Programe.Yes times were hard then and there was not much money about,but all the people i knew kept their homes clean and their children and themselfs clean and tidy,if you went down any street you would see women on their knees scrubing their front door steps,or scrubing the front window sills,
sitting on the up stairs window sills cleaning  their windows and taking a bit of pride in their homes and their selfs.Dont get me wrong, it is a great programe and i suppose there was poverty about, but i did'nt see it where i lived in Royal Rd.or LeyesRd.or the surrounding streets. Just my view.

                                       Regards.       ALF. 






 


=Duncan_Barrett link=topic=2003.msg10361#msg10361 date=1329729518]
What a dramatic story!











It feels like Sunday nights won't be the same without Call The Midwife, now that we've had the last episode. I've written a blog about the TV adaption, and how it relates to the original books, here - http://www.thesugargirls.com/call-the-midwife.  Some of the women I interviewed for The Sugar Girls really didn't like the TV show - they felt it presented a distorted view of the East End in the 1950s that wasn't how they remembered it.  I'd love to hear what Forum members think about this.

Best wishes,
Duncan
[/quote]

[MBrennan]

I lived in Beckton prefabs in the sixties. There were a few filthy families (in our one cul-de-sac I can remember 4), but they were the exception - even then, nothing like the 'teacup woman'. As Alf described, it was the norm for people to sweep & scrub the front (I can't remember if prefabs had steps   ) and that included the street outside their house. I remember women polishing windolene off windows.

[Bill Sharpe]

We must remember that the series depicts life in Poplar in the fifties and not West Ham. I remember a great deal of poverty and terrible housing in Poplar at that time, much worse than I saw in Canning Town or Custom House.

[MBrennan]

Good point. I understand that lots of the tenements & alleys were torn down as they were considered as being unfit for people to live in; some alive with cockroaches & vermin. My mum used to say that places like Basildon were built to rehome people from the slums. Even the flats in West Ham were probably palaces in comparison.

Slightly off-topic, but related. When I was about 19 in '81, I moved away from home and was staying at a friends house on the other side of London. I went to Hammersmith council to try to get on the housing list. They said there wasn't a hope but there was something called a 'hard to let' scheme where people from all over London could get a council flat in the East End as there were lots of empty properties. They said you had 3 choices - all places where there were plenty of empty flats going. I was offered Wapping which I refused, then Shadwell which I also turned down. They then offered me a maisonette in the flats by Bow Flyover (Prioress House) so I accepted. It was £20 a week with rates. After I had lived there for about 6 months, I got a letter from the council saying that as  tenant, I could buy it for £3,500 (or thereabouts) - this was when an average flat in the area was going for £16 - £17,000 - not that I had that kind of money, but I remember in my foolish youth laughing about it and saying "why would I want to live round here - I want a big house with a garden!"  

The last time I looked, they were going for around £250,000  

Just for the record - I was 32 by the time I was in a position to get a mortgage and that was a one-bed flat next to Vicky Park  

I had a choice of West Ham or there that I could afford and chose the Vicky Park one as it was close to work in Old Street

[MBrennan]

Finally watched the final episode tonight. Miranda Hart should get an award. The woman that played Jenny was good but her posh vowels slipped more than once  

PS - Duncan, seeing Cranford mentioned in your blog brought back an embarrassing moment a couple of years ago. I am involved in cat rescue and go to the open day of a cat sanctuary in Kent every summer (http://www.rhodesminnis.co.uk/?Who%27s_Who%3F ). The patron is Liz Smith. I thought I would ask for an autograph. I got my Sunday dramas mixed up. She was standing chatting to someone by the 2nd hand bookstall. I saw a copy of what I thought she was in and asked id she would sign it. She said "I am more than happy to sign it, only I wasn't in Cranford"   - I felt myself turn beetroot and apologized. She said Cranford and Larkerise were both period things on a Sunday and easy to get mixed up (not true!) she asked if I would like her to sign it anyway and I stupidly said no - which was probably quite offensive to her   - she hasn't been well enough to go the last couple of years, but I will take my copy of 'Our Betty' just in case she makes it this year

So the question is, any talk of dramatising The Sugar Girls? 


Mark

[Duncan_Barrett]

What a funny story! We loved both Larkrise and Cranford here - my partner Nuala is very keen on period dramas.  (We've just been working our way through Lilies, also by Heidi Thomas, and set near the docks in Liverpool.)  I hope Liz Smith makes it along to the event again. 

We would be delighted if The Sugar Girls gets adapted for TV (or even film).  I know that it's been sent out to various people and some of them seem quite interested, but we'll just have to cross our fingers and wait I think.  Hopefully the success of Call The Midwife will prove there's an interest in the East End of that period... 

Best wishes,
Duncan

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

Duncan how I agree with you, had heard so much about this book and TV drama, could not wait to see it .
Five minutes was enough for me, never had I seen Woman fighting in the streets and children joining in,
all the years I spent in the East End, the odd argument between Mums over the children was the worst I saw. 
Born in Leyes Road, and from there travelled round a few places up until the War and was then sent to Somerset.
Dad was in MN and most of the family also, Mum scrubbed and cleaned until in the War she went into Laundry work. So you can see I am not in any way well placed but always was glad to say I came from the East End
of London, right down by the Dock Gates say's I.  While in Somerset Dad was drowned and Mum lost 2 homes.
During one of our Sunday Family visits, my Daughter, Granddaughter, Daughter in Law could not understand me
coming from the East End and not like Call the Midwife! I was realy in the Dog House that day. They all loved it..
Perhaps I should have given it more time ,but could not watch us being brought down
to that level. Even if it was a story!
Thank you for giving me the chance to say what I felt, as realy thought I was the only one.    Louise.

[MBrennan]

Hi Louise,

It is a very fair point but like most TV, they always go for drama before fact. I also get your previous point about hygiene. I know I was born later than many on here, but I still remember people having things that may have seen better days but were cleaned, polished & mended. I remember in Beckton AND East Ham where people swept the street outside their house and the step was always scrubbed, blacked or 'redded' (not a real word I know but we had red steps in Bream Gardens) Some of the scenes in Call the Midwife gave the impression that Eastenders were wallowing in filth and doing nothing about it. I was very confused by the last episode with the tenement block that was totally deserted and them having no access to even cold water. Even tenements had a tap?

I know someone in a previous post said Poplar was worse than canning town, but I'm sure most people had a bit of pride.

I remember reading a Molly Weir (Remember her "Cleans floors without scratching Flash powder adverts in the 60s?) book once about her growing up in the Glasgow Tenements - people probably in a similar situation to many Eastenders. She said the most insulting thing you could say about a housewife was "Look she's hanging out her greys" 

Mark

[nelliesgirl]

I agree! Miranda Hart, was brilliant in Call the Midwife. I had only seen her as a comedian, and did not like her. I shall see her in a different light, after her performance in the series.  She played the character Chummy, just as I imagined her in the book.

 As for women fighting in the street, not living in that area, I wouldn't know. I expect, like it as been said, it gives a bit of excitement.

Take East Enders! enough said! watching and listening to the trailer is enough! but there are those that love it, and watch it on Christmas Day!


Nell

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

HelloNell,  I remember very well a couple of months ago? you posted re the book, Call the Midwife! and your
praise made me very keen to see the TV version. (Cannot read the books, have an eye problem).
Even better I think I have a dear lady who regularly brings "Speaking Books"on CD's.  Last time she came I had
one called "Farewell to the East End" 8 CD's / written bye Jennifer Worth and read bye Saskia Butler, Jennifer was a nurse, midwife,ward sister and night sister from 1953 to 73, working mainly in London.
She is a Fellow of the London College of Music. She taught Singing and Piano for 25 yrs. and still sings in choirs over England and Europe.

I did post to say within the first 5min of CTM I turned it off

But Nell great surprise! this "Speaking Book" is the same story, even the Nunn's names are the same.
In this each Nunn's lifestory and how she became a Midwife  are told seperately but they all intermingle when
it is delivery times and some of the stories make you weep.And what those girls knew about Confinement?
and that lovely unknown word to-day STERILIZATION OF INSTRUMENTS.   Louise
Have one more disc to go and that will be a sad end of a lovely story.   (Could they be one of the same.)

Louise

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

MBrennan,
I think you and I may have something in common?
As previously stated I turned off CTM after 5 min.  Those Woman fighting in that way in the street and children watching and joining in made me so angry, in all my years I had never seen that sort of behaviour and no one will believe this but not having much of a home life(nobody's fault) I roamed a lot about Canning Town on my own,in the 30's , in the evenings and never saw a real man's fight, arguments may-be when they were on the pavements outside Snooker Rooms etc. and once going down Ordnance Road I did hear men shouting at each other and I think very close to fighting.
I a nosey 7/8 yr.old turned round while still walking and went straight into a tree. A young couple behind came to my aid and the lad picked me up in his arms and took me all the way home to Mum in Durham Road.(Nose has been a terrible shape ever since) but it has done me well for 82+ years so can't grumble.
Regards Louise.

[MBrennan]

Hi Louise,

Regarding your post to Nell about 'Farewell to The East End' and 'Call The Midwife' being the same characters. Well I am even more confused now. I just looked at the reviews for the book of 'Call The Midwife' and one of the reviewers gave it 3-stars as they said they had already read it under the name of 'Shadows of the workhouse' - which is another of her books. I had considered buying the set as I love to read about how people lived in the past - even in other parts of the country or abroad, although the East End is a bit special. Now I don't know what to do as I could be ordering 3 books that are all the same with different titles! - can anyone enlighten us?

What is even more confusing is that you can buy a set of 4 books.  Maybe I will just download them to my Kindle.

Jennifer Worth died last May http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Worth

PS - I know there are a lot of also-rans with this type of book. One to avoid is 'Nurse On Call: Tales of a Black Country District Nurse'  It was one of those books that I persevered with but wished I hadn't wasted my time on.

[linda c]

Farewell to the East End is the third of the trilogy by Jennifer Worth. The first being Call the Midwife and the second being Shadows of the Workhouse. So some of the characters that are mentioned in Call the Midwife are also in the other two.

Linda

[MBrennan]

Thanks Linda 

So 'In The Midst of Life' must be a separate story? - I think I will try that first