Call the Midwife

'Christmas comes at the closing of the year.

'It is a time for reaching out, looking back,

'finding comfort in the magic of a season that endures.

'It is when we take stock,

'when we measure joy and pain.

'It is when we say this is who we are, what we have now become,

'and when we acknowledge what we cherish most of all.'

Philip?

I can't find it anywhere!

Are they in the box with the tree lights?

I would never put it in there!

Why would I?

It's a china ornament!

It doesn't go on the tree, it goes on the mantelpiece!

Er, perhaps the holly will be enough.

It's even got some berries on it this year.

Anyway, I'll soon get you a nice blaze going.

I don't know - I'm not sure if I'm a fool, or a romantic

or a creature of routine.

Last two.

Once a nurse, always a nurse.

We were so young.

Well, Sister Monica Joan must have been 80-odd, even then.

I think the word I'm looking for is "innocent".

Oh, we knew things, I'd seen things,

things I'd never seen before and never since, but...

..we had a way at looking the future in the eye.

Not frightened at all, only the young do that.

I wish I could find that ornament.

'A Christmas card seems such a frail sort of missive.

'A scrap of coloured paper folded to enclose

'a scant few words of greeting

'and if love is meant and not just included for the sake of form,

'a little line of kisses, neat and faint

'as the prints of birds on snow.'

A card from Jenny.

Lovely!

Keep on going round!

And round again, skipping as high as you can because we need to make sure

those headdresses stay on during the actual performance.

Higher than that, please, Maxine! I can't see where I'm going!

Well, keep on following Beverley. Beverley, you're doing splendidly!

Keep going.

Oh!

Right, that's enough. That's enough.

Will all snowflakes please STOP dancing and stay where you are

until Nurse Franklin has had a look at your headdresses

and considered the case for a few more kirby grips, perhaps?

I strongly suspect there aren't enough kirby grips in the world.

How are you getting along with the snow?

We've cut up enough for a small blizzard. Afternoon!

Oh, Fred! You've come about your costume.

No.

I've come about the leaky tap.

Nurse Franklin, I can't believe you just did that.

What?

Referred to my costume when all the kiddies could hear you!

I didn't say what the costume was.

Well, they know I'm not in the concert!

They know I'm not in the Ballet of the Snowflakes

or the Donkey's Tap Dance.

Do you want a crimson velvet Santa suit,

or a corduroy one that's a bit more scarlet?

You're cutting it a bit fine!

I thought this was a fitting, not me being measured up from scratch.

Fred, why are you making such a fuss?

Everybody knows you're not the real Father Christmas.

You're just helping him out! Exactly!

I don't want to see any disappointed faces when I come in with my sack.

Helping out the big fella from the North Pole is a sacred undertaking.

To me, if not to you.

O Attic shape!

Fair attitude!

With brede of marble men and maidens overwrought

With forest branches and the trodden weed...

Is that Keats, Sister Monica Joan?

There is no end to your perspicacity

since you commenced walking out with a clergyman.

I did not think your mind could keep abreast of his,

but I was wrong.

I was just thinking what a good thing it was, that the crib was in its box

when the bomb went off,

but one of the figurines must have been broken. Oh, no.

Run it under the tap, quickly.

Oh! It is the sheep.

And it is shattered.

When will Herr Hitler cease his sport with us?

That's Mona Woollnet done and dusted. Little boy, name of Noel.

That's rather jolly.

We get Noels every year. Noels, Robins, Hollies, Carols.

You can set your watch by them.

Why isn't the autoclave on? Look at all these instruments!

Nurse Miller, I want this rectified.

Sister, I'm sorry, I'm expected in Sister Julienne's office in a moment.

Course you are. Off you pop.

Thank you, Sister. Autoclave!

After which, you can adjust your list

because I'm breaking into this bottle of Milk of Magnesia.

Of course. Patients will press snacks on you this time of year.

I gave in to a piece of sherry log, keeps repeating on me.

Mmm...

And lo!

A star was seen in the east,

and the donkey ears were found behind the bar.

Where's Freddie? I put him down for a nap. His cough's been rotten.

Poor little soldier!

I can smell the ale on them from here.

Tom Hereward confessed to a bit of larking about at the youth club.

He left the keys to the bar unattended.

He could be arrested for that.

"Failure to ensure the safety of minors at a place of entertainment."

You do work so awfully hard.

I don't want to fail my sergeant's exams again.

Peter, you say that as if you've failed them annually

since time immemorial! It's only been twice.

Twice so far. You could get arrested for that.

Offence against the Optimism Act, 1959.

Chapter 1, clause 1. "Failure to demonstrate a backbone under fire."

Nurse Miller, I know how deeply you've been considering this matter,

and I know how much you've been questioning your heart

and how hard you've been praying.

How could I not, when once I asked the same questions

and prayed the same prayers?

I thought I'd be certain by now. It's been months.

Sometimes it takes years.

That's why we speak of testing our vocation,

beginning with six months as a postulant. I know that.

I just... I don't know why I'm feeling this call. This longing.

Cynthia, you may take as long as you need to discern

what God wills for you.

But there will be several other postulants

joining the order at the New Year, and there is a place for you

beside them, if you wish to take it up. I see.

If you're not ready, there will be other possibilities.

In another 12 months, or possibly two years.

Sister Julienne.

Will you pray for me?

Always.

Go on, let me see how big yours are now.

Happy Christmas, Nurse. Liqueur chocolates! How decadent.

And a urine sample.

You are kind!

Shelagh, she's put on another pound.

She's doing so well.

I feel like the luckiest woman alive.

Ah, all my prayers were answered.

Just not in the way I expected.

A little bird tells me that a certain young lady

has come for her vaccinations!

And she can come right to the front of the queue.

Patrick, she'll catch her death of cold.

He's years older than her. Gives me the creeps.

Handkerchief, Denise.

I've forgotten it.

You think at 16 they're all grown up.

They'll start thinking for themselves.

Using their common sense.

You stop asking if they've remembered their hanky.

I haven't got mine either. You'll have to do without.

Here you are.

Wipe your eyes and have a good blow, old thing.

Now, it's not often we're able to refer our mothers-to-be

to Astor Lodge, but by all accounts it's absolutely splendid.

They only take 12 girls at a time,

and the matron there runs it as a proper home from home.

How long will she have it with her for? The child?

The general rule is that the little ones are cared for by their mothers

until the first stage of adoption goes through.

That's usually accomplished within six weeks.

I'm leaving mine at the hospital.

I told the social worker - I don't want to see it,

I don't want to touch it. I'm handing it over and that's that.

And where's your mother?

Yes, that's in your notes.

Nurse Mount will accompany you on the bus, and then hand over

all your paperwork to Sister Maltby when you arrive.

I hope there's not a long walk at the other end.

I've got a Dansette to carry as well as a suitcase.

You'd think you were on your way to Butlins.

Butlins?

I don't think so.

I'm more of a St Moritz girl, me, that's why I'm wearing my mink hat.

That's never mink.

Chocks away, I think!

Let's not smoke in the street, Avril.

I'd finished it, in any case.

Are we slipping out the side way? I think it's for the best.

She's never been away from home before.

I'm still hoping nobody'll find out where she's gone.

When Denise comes back, she can make a fresh start.

And from experience, no-one will ask any difficult questions.

At least she won't make the same mistake again... will she?

I'm sure she won't.

< Come get your Christmas tree!

< Right, come get your Christmas tree! Freshly cut...

What are you doing here, Sister?

You deem me incognisant of your purpose,

but I fear that were I to let you perform your task unsupervised,

Nonnatus would receive a very sorry tree indeed.

But Sister Monica Joan, Sister Julienne, she's put her foot down.