Call the Midwife is an awesome series, and probably the best currently on television. The story lines are excellent and seems to be, for the most part, historically correct and accurate. This series is based on the best-selling memoirs, Call the Midwife, by Jennifer Worth, who died six months before the first episode aired. The series depicts, in part, and has been expanded upon, her work as a district nurse and midwife in the East End of London during the 1950's and 1960's. Obviously, story lines needed to be expanded to create a long-running series such as this, but that does not hinder the enjoyment of the program, and in fact, probably adds to it, as it allows for development of new and existing characters. Every single cast member is believable. The acting of everyone is phenomenal and realistic. The writers have done an exceptional job with the scripts. The sets seem to be relatively accurate for the time period. You couldn't ask for a better more realistic series. While some reviewers have complained that this strays away a little from the memoirs, I can't see that anyone could expect a long running series not do so. When Jennifer Worth was writing her memoirs, she was writing them as a memoir and not in preparation for a long running television probgram. For this to have worked for television, , more needed to be added, and the script writers have done it in an exceptional way.

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

It's hard to believe that anyone could be as compassionate and tender as the midwives in Call the Midwife, compassion and tenderness being rare qualities in the increasingly disconnected world of the 21st century. I suspect those qualities are a real incentive for even the casual viewer of this series, which depicts the lives of midwives toiling in the east London of the late 50s- early 1960s. The world of almost 60 years ago was a very different one from today, both from a social and technological standpoint. I'm impressed by the attention to detail in the series, which allows viewers to immerse themselves in the stories, which touch upon issues such as abortion and incest, as well as the then real threats of polio and tuberculosis. More recent stories have even addressed the thalidomide tragedy. The acting is, without exception, top notch, especially that of Judy Parfitt as Sister Monica Joan. I tend to be especially critical of shows that rely on lachrymose sentimentality to further the story. Call the Midwife is at times tender, sweet tempered and, well, nice, but never false as it displays the panorama of the human condition.

Very touching series, full of the kindest remarks and a giving to others that one seldom witnesses in film. The remarks made by the nuns and nurses are saturated with words that edify and never condemn. Seldom do I shed tears, but with this series I cannot stop them. I want to be like what it is I hear the actors speaking. I want those words to be on the tip of my tongue. Love is life giving, isn't it? From this series, one sees that love is born from the knowledge of and willing obedience to God's set of virtues, not something of man's own making. Even in the hardest sayings is there love to be felt. My applause to the writers and to the actors who are so able to convey this message.