Radio Times: Review by:; Emma Sturgess

The characters in Call the Midwife have a habit of feverishly repeating “East End”, as if we might forget where they’re supposed to be. It’s an understandable compulsion, because despite the glimpses of the docks, grubby urchins, childhood illness and knocking shops, the 1950s styling is so meticulous that it looks, well, like a TV set.

Nevertheless, it’s a set on which some life-shaking, small-but-huge dramas are played out, and on which Miranda Hart makes a convincing departure from comedy in a role that’s very nearly straight. She’s Chummy, an upper-class trainee midwife who needs experience in the community in order to go to Africa as a missionary. Her inability to master one of the most important tools of the midwife’s trade — the bicycle — makes her a laughing stock among the aforementioned urchins, while Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris) just hates her for being posh.

About this programme

2/6. Jenny sets out to help a heavily pregnant teenage girl who escaped an abusive life in Ireland and made her way to London, only to be taken in by a cafe owner who forced her into prostitution. Meanwhile, new midwife Chummy (Miranda Hart) arrives at Nonnatus House, and despite an overwhelming eagerness to please, she makes slow progress - a problem not helped by her inability to ride a bicycle. Jessica Raine and Amy McAllister co-star in the period medical drama.