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Post by poster J on Jan 17, 2022 11:21:36 GMT
Shelagh is really getting annoying now, I keep feeling her scenes are just a waste of time. Same goes for Mrs Buckle (though I do like Fred and Reggie).
Also getting bored of the Trixie/rich man romance already, and hoping the trailer for next week's episode isn't pointing towards a desperately lazy storyline for Lucille but something else instead.
On the other hand though, Nurse Crane is still reliably brilliant, Sister Frances seems to be an entirely new confident person this series and Nurse Corrigan is now my favourite character, so I actually enjoyed last night's episode a lot. The Cusack acting dynasty continues, I thought Megan Cusack was fantastic this week.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2022 12:57:31 GMT
The show has had it's backbone cast for a long time, others have come and gone and new faces have been bought in. Georgie Glenn as Millicent has been a great addition in recent series. With Shelagh it always amuses me as Laura Main looks so different out of character with her hair down that I heard several people were surprised how glamourous she looked on the One Show.
Trixie I think would have been married by now in real life and they could have still kept her in the show quite easily.
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Post by peggs on Jan 17, 2022 21:16:54 GMT
I'm an episode behind but yes I'm surprised by how long the Trixie romance is stretching out for. Since it was signposted about 5 seconds after they met and yes didn't need to mean a show exist.
Council Buckle really gets on my nerves! All that bustle. Must be frustrating for the actress as she really only gets to have two options to play; the I'm a councillor and am going to open/announce things and telling Fred off/occasionally selling silk.
Love Nurse Crane, Sister Frances and yes nurse Corrigan coming on nicely. Sister Hilda amuses me. I can overlook Doctor Turner's general goodness in a way that annoys me in his wife.
And obviously Sister Monica Joan who is the Maggie Smith equivalent to Downton and tends to get the best lines.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2022 17:48:54 GMT
Yes the give the younger actresses the main storylines and can still give the likes of the great Judy Parfitt some lovely one liners whilst sat talking in the nuns house.
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Post by poster J on Jan 30, 2022 22:31:23 GMT
Yes the give the younger actresses the main storylines and can still give the likes of the great Judy Parfitt some lovely one liners whilst sat talking in the nuns house. I wish we had more Sister Monica Joan though, although I suppose tonight was an example of why she is so good in small doses too! Floods of tears tonight. Poor Lucille!
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Post by TallPaul on Jan 31, 2022 9:04:32 GMT
I had a feeling early on that Trixie would be off somewhere. Her godmother has come in handy over the years! Alongside the more serious storylines, it was fun seeing how Helen George's baby bump was disguised. My personal favourite was behind a teapot in the habadashers, complete with knitted cosy. I guess that wedding will just have to wait.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2022 19:55:05 GMT
Yes the give the younger actresses the main storylines and can still give the likes of the great Judy Parfitt some lovely one liners whilst sat talking in the nuns house. I wish we had more Sister Monica Joan though, although I suppose tonight was an example of why she is so good in small doses too! Floods of tears tonight. Poor Lucille! Judy Parfitt at 86 I doubt would want to have huge storylines giving her some quality lines each episode makes her role a perfect supporting one. Plus the show does have a large ensemble cast so no-one is the main stars as such.
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Post by stevemar on Jan 31, 2022 23:38:05 GMT
I’ve loved this show since series 1. Yes, it’s sentimental and the Vanessa Redgrave prologue/epilogues are poor, but the tough storylines and ensemble acting make you care for the characters. That’s the best way I think to tell the story. And yes, I often cry whilst watching - this series hasn’t been too bad for that, but it got me again.
Whilst it has never really had the level of publicity of some BBC dramas, the continued high ratings and prime time Sunday/Christmas Day slots show how valued it is by the BBC.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 1, 2022 1:07:35 GMT
I was impressed by the decision to feature an under represented form of domestic violence in this week's episode. It is very rare for male victims of spousal abuse to be acknowledged in any media
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2022 15:23:17 GMT
The domestic violenvce and the child cruelty was a hard hitting one. Given children often had sadistic teachers in that era then I wonder if NSPCC would have been involved. Also the nuns talking so openly about sex education was a slight surprise.
I get the Vanessa Redgrave narrative when the character she represented was in the series but she has been left for several years now. Maybe as it is 1967 or so now in the story they should mention some of the causes Dame Vanessa was involved in back then in the storylines. I'm sure she'd like that or it would be a good in joke.
Possibly even have Judy Parfitt or Jenny Agutter watching their much younger selves on TV would be a thing to do.
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Post by ruthieh on Feb 13, 2022 22:22:16 GMT
Great episode tonight! It’s going to be a long week.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 13, 2022 23:18:52 GMT
At least it will be resolved next week rather than waiting for the Christmas special
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Post by poster J on Feb 13, 2022 23:33:06 GMT
Really good episode - unbearably tense as I knew what was coming at the end! I knew from the episode description for next week that Nancy ended up separated from the other two and actually guessed how it happened!
I wonder if all the raven nonsense has been too obvious and none of the main characters will actually die (the train driver presumably will, and maybe the tea trolley lady) but we have serious injuries instead - awful though that still sounds, I hope I'm right!
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 13, 2022 23:57:20 GMT
It won't be too much of a cull as the Christmas episode will still be something heartwarming and uplifting.
You can't do that if you are burying half the cast
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Post by TallPaul on Feb 14, 2022 9:40:39 GMT
I'm afraid I spent the last 10 minutes wondering why the train's dead man's handle hadn't activated.
On a Sunday night I want television that is (mostly) nice and gentle.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Feb 14, 2022 10:35:02 GMT
I watched first time in years and I won't be rushing back. Is it just me or are 50 ish % of the lines written to be like the end of scene in Acorn Antiques? You know that polite laughter when Mr O has forgotten the sweetener in the coffee.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2022 16:44:34 GMT
If Stetephen McGann or Jenny Agutter were going to leave I think we may have read about it. Interesting to do a two parter series finale too.
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Post by ruthieh on Feb 14, 2022 17:01:35 GMT
I did see on Twitter a comment that Jenny Agutter had previous with trains!
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Post by poster J on Feb 14, 2022 21:16:35 GMT
If Stetephen McGann or Jenny Agutter were going to leave I think we may have read about it. Interesting to do a two parter series finale too. There have been rumours about Jenny Agutter wanting more time to do other things. And this show is usually quite good at keeping character deaths under wraps!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2022 21:31:36 GMT
It would be a shame if Jenny left as she has been a constant presence in the series and I think it only has a couple more years to run. We are up to 1967 now in the series and didn't these Nun lead units close around 1970 so there could be say 2 or a max of 3 more series.
But Jenny along with Stephen has been on the show for over a decade so they may fancy a change or have other things they want to explore. Jenny also turns 70 this year so if she fancied taking on a major stage role again may want to be free to do so now rather than a few years down the line when going back on stage could be a bigger ask.
Hopefully none of the major characters die but we'll have to wait an see.
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Post by poster J on Feb 14, 2022 22:03:50 GMT
I think the real life order the show is based on left Poplar in 1974 so we have potentially 6 or 7 years left, although the show is renewed until 2024 at the minute and I suspect that may be the end.
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Post by NorthernAlien on Feb 14, 2022 22:51:51 GMT
I'm afraid I spent the last 10 minutes wondering why the train's dead man's handle hadn't activated. On a Sunday night I want television that is (mostly) nice and gentle. Yes, I wondered about the dead man's handle - {Spoiler - click to view}but I think it was all staged so that he kind of fell onto the handle, meaning that it, as a failsafe, wouldn't kick in? Because as far as it would be concerned, it would still be being pressed??? **************** And as for anyone leaving, as has been pointed out, they are *very* good at keeping Major Character Deaths quiet on this show - and my money would be on Jenny Agutter (sp?), if for no other reason than that Stephen McGann is married to the 'show runner', Heidi Thomas...
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Post by NorthernAlien on Feb 14, 2022 22:55:56 GMT
I think the real life order the show is based on left Poplar in 1974 so we have potentially 6 or 7 years left, although the show is renewed until 2024 at the minute and I suspect that may be the end. Agreed - it feels like it's very slowly building to an end - time for Tim to qualify (or at least finish his degree), and Trixie to *finally* 'get her man', before the nuns wander off to Birmingham...
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 15, 2022 0:09:39 GMT
They have been building up Fenella Woolgar's nun character all season
So perhaps all this been foreshadowed for a while
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Post by lou on Feb 15, 2022 10:57:02 GMT
I think the real life order the show is based on left Poplar in 1974 so we have potentially 6 or 7 years left, although the show is renewed until 2024 at the minute and I suspect that may be the end. Today’s Radio Times has an interview with Heidi Thomas that says the nuns continued practising in Poplar into the 70s and then moved to Birmingham, so there is scope for it to carry on further still. No spoilers in the interview either, only had a quick glance so far, but apparently it might not get resolved in this week’s episode!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2022 11:05:18 GMT
I didn't realise that Stephen and Heidi were a long term item so the chances of him leaving would be very small. With Sister Monica Joan's age we have always wondered how long her tenure might be but Judy Parfitt gets some wonderful lines and as long as she is able to continue playing the role I'd hope they would let her continue.
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Post by peggs on Feb 20, 2022 13:42:26 GMT
Am caught up now. Well that impending train doom built up didn't it. It said me down a whole side line of thinking of when did a lady with a tea trolley stop being a thing on trains? I can remember it appearing now and again in my dim and distant past.
I'm obviously mean for while Dr Turner is unfailingly nice and encyclopaedic when it comes to diseases I felt Tim had a point. Maybe all those rose tinted stories of medical training hadn't actually done him any favours and of course it would be different enough 20 odd years later. I'm not an absolute heel though, poor Dr Turner's face when he got turned on.
Grant to see Sister Monica Joan stepping up to the plate in a crisis, always a stalwart. I think it's curtains for Sister Julien, her screen time does seem to have diminished somewhat.
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Post by isabel on Feb 20, 2022 13:49:57 GMT
Really looking forward to tonight.
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Post by Jane Parfitt on Feb 20, 2022 15:13:18 GMT
I'm not an absolute heel though, poor Dr Turner's face when he got turned on. I thought I'd missed something until I realised what you meant! 😂
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Post by poster J on Feb 20, 2022 16:02:11 GMT
Am caught up now. Well that impending train doom built up didn't it. It said me down a whole side line of thinking of when did a lady with a tea trolley stop being a thing on trains? There is still a refreshments trolley on quite a few of the mainline services! I suspect if anyone dies it will be Sister Julienne, but I think the raven thing is too obvious and all the main characters will survive but Sister Julienne will be so badly injured she will be forced to retire/move back to the Mother House. That way there is a chance of her making guest appearances in future but Jenny Agutter doesn't have to commit to a whole series. I think the train driver and tea trolley lady will be the characters to die, and possibly someone who was on the ground rather than on the train - I'm a bit fearful we are also going to get a massive explosion from all the unused fireworks!
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