‘Call the Midwife’ 2021 Christmas Special Recap: A Wedding in Poplar
Another Christmas has come and gone at Nonnatus House. The 2021 Call the Midwife Christmas special aired Dec. 25 on PBS. The 90-minute episode featured some big developments for a couple of fan-favorite characters and the return of a familiar face who was missing from season 10, as well as a familiar mix of touching moments and holiday spirit.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the 2021 Call the Midwife Christmas special.]
There’s a mini baby boom in the ‘Call the Midwife’ Christmas special
It’s Christmas 1966, and Call the Midwife’s nuns and midwives are preparing for the holiday celebrations, including rehearsals for the Christmas pageant. But they face a challenge when the maternity home is overrun with expectant mothers.
Of course, the capable team handles the influx of patients with good humor and grace, even when one mother is treating them more like servants than medical professionals. Naturally, there are some tense moments. One woman starts to hemorrhage after birth. Sister Frances (Ella Bruccoleri) has to handle her first breech delivery. And another mother-to-be is desperately trying to hide her addiction to heroin.
Fortunately, all the moms and their babies end up OK in the end. And caring for the drug-addicted mother and her infant (who is suffering withdrawal symptoms) is particularly meaningful for Dr. Turner’s (Stephen McGann) wife Shelagh (Laura Main). That’s because she learns that their foster daughter Mae’s mother was also a drug addict.
Mother Mildred returns
Fans couldn’t help but feel the absence of Miriam Margolyes as Mother Mildred in Call the Midwife Season 10. (COVID-19 travel restrictions kept her from filming in the U.K.). But the Mother Superior of the Order of St. Raymond Nonnatus made a welcome return in the holiday special.
The no-nonsense Mother Mildred, who arrives on the back of a milk truck, provides some comic relief in the episode, as well as an enthusiastic reading of A Christmas Carol. She also shares some much-needed information about how to care for the newborn in withdrawal. She treated addicted infants during her time in Hong Kong and helpfully shares the information about Mae’s past with Shelagh and Dr. Turner.
“It is a new challenge in this country, but it will become a scourge,” she warns.
Lucille has an accident
At the end of Call the Midwife Season 10, Lucille (Leonie Elliott) and Cyril (Zephryn Taitte) had gotten engaged and planning a Christmastime wedding. So, it’s no huge surprise that we get to see them tie the knot in a lovely Boxing Day ceremony.
However, there are a few hitches on the way to the altar. Mr. Randall is supposed to give Lucille away, but when he’s suddenly unavailable, Fred Buckle (Cliff Parisi), who is supposed to be Cyril’s best man, steps up. Reggie (Daniel Laurie) takes over as best man. And Matthew (Olly Rix) ends up driving the bride to church after the wedding car breaks down.
Lucille’s wedding also creates some complicated feelings for Nurse Phyllis Crane (Linda Bassett). Not only is she losing her roommate, but the wedding brings up sad memories of her friend and former roommate Barbara (Charlotte Ritchie), who died of blood poisoning in season 7. Happily, Lucille comes up with a way to help her remember her late friend, giving her a string of pearls and a sweet note about keeping those we’ve lost in our hearts. Meanwhile, Phyllis rounds up several of the children Lucille helped deliver to serve as bridal attendants.
But the biggest obstacle standing in the way of a perfect day for Cyril and Lucille is a black eye. After indulging in a bit too much of Sister Hilda’s (Fenella Woolgar) rum punch at her hen party, she takes a stumble on the stairs and wakes up the next morning with a massive shiner. Fortunately, Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) suggests an old-timey remedy. (It involves leeches, much to Lucille’s dismay.) But the trick has her looking perfect by her wedding day.
Lucille and Cyril say ‘I do’
Finally, Lucille and Cyril’s big day arrives. While their families can’t be there, there are some touches of home worked in that are especially meaningful, including a gospel choir and multiple cakes carried into the reception by the ladies of the church.
Romance seems to be in the air at the reception, based on a meaningful look between Matthew and Nurse Trixie (Helen George). It seems likely we might see a romance between the two blossom in season 11. Trixie, at least, seems to have put her anger at him for being an absentee slumlord behind her, and he’s making a sincere effort to clean up his tenement properties.
The special ends with the newlyweds, exhausted after their big day, finally enjoying a quiet moment alone. It’s a happy conclusion to this holiday episode and one that should leave fans looking forward to Call the Midwife Season 11, which premieres in March 2022 on PBS.
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