PBS Call the Midwife fans share their picks of episode which made them 'cry ugly tears'

June 2024 · 4 minute read

Call the Midwife fans have revealed their choice of episodes which leave them weeping. Taking to social media, a curious viewer asked others which episode of the hit drama pulled at their heartstrings the most.

Reddit user PurpleThirteen’s post was entitled, “Episodes that made you saddest and happiest?”, keen to know which episode would “guarantee” to make a viewer “sob sad ugly tears”.

PurpleThirteen’s post simply read: “Which episode is guaranteed to make you sob sad ugly tears? And which is most likely to make you smile the most?”

READ MORE: PBS Call the Midwife fans beg for iconic 'hilarious' and 'wonderful' character to return to the show 8 years after exit

The most interacted comment appeared at the top of the replies, which declared the episode surrounding a group of neglected children (season four, episode one). They wrote: “The Barbara episode and the one with the three abused/neglected children who got shipped off to Australia for a life of misery make me cry. The Sister Evangelina episode as well."

Others agreed the premiere episode of the fourth season was a real tear-jerker, saying, “Definitely those three, as well as when Jenny showed Mrs Jenkins where her children are buried”. The episode features Trixie (Helen George) helping a family of four children who are regularly left alone by their mother in conditions of abject squalor, which brings back bad memories of her own childhood.

The children’s horrendous living conditions and level of neglect are finally revealed after one of the kids is brought to Sergeant Noakes by the shopkeeper after attempting to shoplift biscuits. Their mother goes away for days at a time and the flat is filthy. Baby Coral is dehydrated and has worn a soiled diaper for so long she might need skin grafts at the hospital.

At the end of the episode, the older version of Jenny (Vanessa Redgrave), who narrates the show, explains the baby, Coral, was adopted in England, but the others were sent to Australia under the Migrant Children’s Act. Another episode many viewers agreed was one of the saddest surrounds Nurse Barbara’s (Charlotte Ritchie) death.

Charlotte joined the BBC drama in its fourth season, and had been hired as a nurse to replace Cynthia Miller (Bryony Hannah). During her time on the show, Barbara entered into a relationship with Trixie’s ex-fiancé Tom Hereward (Jack Ashton).

Despite initially being reluctant to pursue the relationship, Trixie ultimately gives them her blessing. In the 2016 Christmas special, Tom proposes to Barbara while he accompanies the nuns of Nonnatus House on a mission to South Africa, with the two ultimately marrying in the season six finale.

After spending some time in Birmingham on a mission, the couple returned to Poplar and Barbara began working again. However, she’s struck down with symptoms of a cold, which she initially attributes to stress.

Over the course of the series it is revealed the character has blood poisoning from contracting meningitis. After several days in hospital, Barbara’s physical state doesn’t improve, but she does wake up to everyone’s joy. However, the septicaemia was found to have caused irreparable damage, as three of her fingers had tissue damage, therefore ending her career as a midwife. Unfortunately, her health worsened and Barbara died in season seven, in the company of her husband and Nurse Phyllis Crane (Linda Bassett).

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Lastly, fans chose the tragic episode from 2022 about Lucille’s (Leonie Elliott) miscarriage. Lucille and husband Cyril (Zephryn Taitte) discovered they were expecting, and though Cyril was worried about his job situation, they were excited to start a family.

Cyril managed to bag a job earlier in the January episode, and the future looked positive. Unfortunately, Lucille experienced a miscarriage in a heartbreaking turn of events. She felt tired after helping a woman give birth, but Phyllis soon discovered blood on the sheets where she was lying and found Lucille miscarrying on the toilet.

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