Call the Midwife

Series two, episode three
With Chummy now busy falling off her bike in Sierra Leone, ‘Call the Midwife’ is shorn of one of the reliable sources of the light relief that sneaked it into an early Sunday evening slot. On the basis of tonight’s episode, one of the nuns had better develop a gift for hilarious pratfalls pretty soon, otherwise this could turn routinely grim.

Jenny is seconded to a short-staffed hospital nearby, but finds herself looking after an old flame under the beady eye of a bullying surgeon. Back at Nonnatus, church mouse Cynthia finds herself struggling with the earthy banter of the east end and dealing with a pair of belligerent twins. Mavis and Meg really don’t want to be helped but, when Mave’s birth turns nasty, they have little choice. An even higher blood-and-guts ratio than usual; expect new comic relief to arrive presently.