Call The Midwife review: The midwives’ East End Christmas – thankfully without the Kray twins, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS

Call the midwife

Judgement:

Ghosts

Judgement:

Robin, Carol, Holly, Noel. . . and Nigel. After the drama of that multiple birth in the back of an ambulance, we continue Call the midwife (BBC1)the parents of the quadruplet couple were running out of festive names.

Nigel isn’t Christmassy, ​​of course, but he wasn’t one of the newcomers. He was a cat who hung around a Poplar slum and begged for scraps from kindly council worker Cyril (Zephryn Taitte).

It is doubtful that anyone, even a cat, has baptized Nigel since 1968, when this episode takes place. By the way, you don’t meet many young Cyrils either. But perhaps, thanks to Farage’s newfound popularity on I’m A Celebrity, there will be a whole host of Nigels on the Christmas maternity wards this year.

Writer Heidi Thomas, the show’s ingenious creator who has come up with a dozen variations on the Christmas story since 2012, had other fun with names. The father-of-one was named Mitchell, a nod to EastEnders. Another family was the Shelbys, following in the footsteps of Peaky Blinders. Luckily there were no young Krays.

Linda Bassett, who plays Nurse Crane, was literally on her phone during her performance. Presumably on course, she delivered monologues by telephone, before returning on her hands and knees at the climax with back pain.

Robin, Carol, Holly, Noel. . . and Nigel. After the drama of that multiple birth in the back of an ambulance on Call The Midwife, the parents of the foursome almost ran out of festive names

Luckily, the flamboyant osteopath Geoffrey (Christopher Harper) treated the monastery like a budget hotel and got her up to speed with just a few clicks.

It’s not unusual for elderly drama queen Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) to turn heads at Christmas. One year she ran away from Nonnatus House, throwing her headscarf in a garbage bin along the way. Another year later she ended up in hospital with a broken leg.

So it was no surprise at all when she threw a melodramatic cloak of gloom over the proceedings, declaring to everyone, “This coming Christmas will be my last on earth.” I will not see another festive season this side of heaven.”

That set up nicely for the plot, with the community coming together to cheer up Sister MJ. Fortunately, the best way to put a smile on her face was to relive the Victorian celebrations of her youth, with men in stovepipe hats and sideburns, ladies in crinoline, a horse-drawn sleigh and lanterns on long brass poles.

Ghosts Christmas Special. Kitty (Lolly Adefope), Pat (Jim Howick), The Captain (Ben Willbond), Mike (Kiell Smith-bynoe), Julian (Simon Farnaby), Alison (Charlotte Ritchie), Robin (Larry Rickard), Thomas Thorne (Mat Baynton) )), Lady Button (Martha Howe-Douglas), Humphrey (Larry Rickard)

The cast has recreated an old master painting of the scene in the stable. Trixie and Matthew were Mary and Joseph, and Doctor Turner was a wise man. Reggie (Daniel Laurie, who has Down syndrome) stubbornly refused to be a shepherd and, thanks to a clever reference to art history worthy of Fiona Bruce herself, appeared as an angel instead.

The very last episode of the beautiful sitcom Ghosts (BBC1) sent almost the entire spectral cast to be with the angels, when an exorcist was summoned to Button House. However, there wasn’t much danger. All it took to foil the bell, book, and candle was for the ghosts to hide in a closet until the minister was gone.

Ghosts is usually packed with quick one-liners. This farewell was a softer, more melancholy affair, playing on the theme of family members overstaying their welcome at Christmas.