From Religion News Service
I was thrilled to hear that PBS’ “Call the Midwife” has started a new season in the U.S., especially since a British friend had sworn to me that no more episodes were being produced. Back we can go to those breath-holding glimpses of transcendence, for the next eight Sunday nights. In the first new episode, the familiar voice of Vanessa Redgrave tells us that it is now 1961, when “science was all-powerful and all medicine was good.”
Through many small stories of births, this series tells a larger story about religion and health. The first two seasons were based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, one of the original nurse-midwives sent by the brand-new, publicly funded National Health Service to “Nonnatus House,” the fictional name for a real Anglican order of sisters who were also skilled midwives.
The most notable change from previous seasons seems to be that births are taking place in the clinic, not at home.