Call the Midwife (2002) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Jenny Lee: Main character, nurse, midwife. Comes to Nonnatus House to work as a midwife when she is 23. Broken love affair behind her, she lives for her work.
• Sister Julienne: Mother Superior of the convent. Tries to keep the nuns in order, especially Monica Joan and Evangelina, who constantly fight. She does run a tight ship though and is in control, Very understanding and a good leader.
• Sister Evangelina: A nun that broke the social barriers and climbed from poor working class to becoming a nurse and a nun. While her upper class fellow nuns has failed to understand her true personality, the Cockneys love her, since she is one of them.
• Trixie: Fellow midwife.
• Sister Monica Joan: 90+ and most of the time gaga. An aristocratic woman that broke with tradition and became a nun. Can be mean, discuss astrology, be mischievious, all at once. A true hero of the Blitz when she delivered babies at bomb sites and in air raid shelters and in the tube.
• Cynthia: Fellow midwife.
• Dr Turner: Doctor that has chosen to live with his patients, in the East End, with his family.
• Chummy: Fellow midwife from the upper class.
• Jimmy: Old school mate of Jennifer Lee's, who she would have wanted to fall in love with, but could not. Frequently tries to get her in to trouble, by his dandy behaviour.
• Sister Bernadette: Nun and fellow midwife.
• Fred: Handy man in the convent with lots of ideas on how to earn money. Most of the backfiring.
• Mr Thomas: Add a description of this character.
• Mary: Young Irish girl from county Mayo, that after her dad's death was sexually molested by her alcoholic mother's new man. Running away to London, she ends up in even more trouble. Zakir finds her on the East End streets and force her in to prostitution. When she gets pregnant she runs away and the nuns help her to a Catholic safe house. She gives birth to a baby Kathleen, who is taken from her since Mary is just 15 with no way of supporting herself.
• Margaret
• Mrs Conchita Warren: Was brought to England as a 11-12 year old by her twentysomething lover/husband. Gives birth to her 24th and 25th child in the book. Has never menstruated since her husband has made her pregnant after each baby, with a new baby. Knew absolutely no words in English at all, could never communicate with her husband, that knew no Spanish.
• Len Warren: Went off as an adventurous twentysomething, to Spain to fight the Civil War there and then brought home his 11-12 year-old "wife" from there, that he keeps constantly pregnant even though he doesn't know a word of Spanish and she doesn't know a word of English. Father of 25 and loving them all to pieces. The only man in East End that seemed to know how to feed a baby and change a nappy.
• Rosie: Dead daughter of Mrs. Jenkins that died in the workhouse.
• Marjorie
• Muriel
• Molly Pearce
• Jim Woolveridge
• Winnie
• Ted: Widower that turned a blind eye to the fact that his black son was a consequence of his wife, having cheated on him.
• Bella: Went in to hysterics when giving birth to her first child since she had cheated on her husband with a black man and was scared stiff that the baby was going to be black and giver her away.
• Doris: Went hop-picking with her husband and children, in Kent. So did some people from the West Indies. When she later gave birth to a black child, her infuriated husband forced her to give away her child by another man.
• Mike
• Zakir: Flirtatious pimp on Cable Street that went fishing for young girls to bring in to the trade.
• Dave Smith: Husband of Bella that thought she was expecting a black child after an out-of-wedlock liason.
• Sally
• Liz Warren: Daughter of Conchita Warren, that is a superb dressmaker. Helps her mother out after she falls, gives birth to a premature baby and almost dies doing so. Translates for her Spanish speaking mother.
• Tom
• Jack
• Terri Coates
• Brenda
• Alan
• Margaret F.
• David
• Frank Rust
• Carol: Baby born on Christmas Day
• Flo
• Cyril: Husband of Doris that got a nasty surprise when his wife gave birth to a black baby and refused to let her keep the illegitimate child.
• Dolores
• Joe Williamson
• Julian Franklyn
• Rector
• Ivy
• Robert Balthrop
• Nelly
• Dolores Cook
• Betty Smith
• Lil Hoskin
• Percy
• Routledge
• Edith
• Gloria
• J. W. Ballantyne
• Andre Deutsch
• Novice Ruth
• Mrs. Jenkins: Married at 18, lost her husband ten years later to TBC. With 6 children in tow, she tried to survive. After an accident in a factory, that involved a machine without safety and her dress getting caught in it and her arm severely injured, she lost her income and had to move in to the workhouse with her children. She never saw them again and stayed from 1916-1935. She roamed the streets in the 1950s, her mind somewhat gone, not understanding that times had changed for the better and that she could get help.

Quotes edit see section history

• “I am just thankful that I knew here at all. If we had not met or if we had met and just passed each other by all the great literature of the world, poets, all all the great love stories would have been would have been meaningless to me. You cannot (truly) understand what you have not experienced.”

• “"I say, gels, did you know that Binkie Bingham-Binghouse is getting spliced at last? Jolly good show, what? Actually, her Mater will be frightfully chuffed, don't you know. They thought she was on the shelf. Good old Binkie, haw haw!"”

  Chummy reading The Times

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• England
• London
• East End: Poorest parts of London, full of docks, poor people, prostitutes and criminals.
• Stepney
• Nonnatus House: Name that Jennifer Worth gives the convent, instead of using its proper name.
• East India Dock Road
• Dublin: Capital of Ireland.
• Limehouse
• Brighton: Seaside resort that Jenny Lee heads for one night in a slow car, to have a cold midnight swim.
• Commercial Road
• Ireland
• Paris
• Leyland Street

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Shadows of the Workhouse.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Jennifer Worth (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 618.20092

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Parenting & Families › Family Health
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs
• Books › Health, Mind & Body