Call The Midwife season 9 returned in dramatic fashion last night (5 January), with an outbreak of diphtheria in Poplar, a baby abandoned in a dustbin under difficult circumstances and a popular character leaving the show.
Episode one of the new season focused largely on Fred Buckle (Cliff Parisi) finding a baby girl in a waste bin outside Nonnatus House. The little one was named Primrose and taken under the care of St. Cuthbert's hospital, but shortly after a woman named Brenda (Emma Lowndes) came forward to claim the child as her own.
It transpired that Brenda was a housekeeper at a Presbyterian church and while it was never absolutely confirmed, it seemed as though Primrose's father was the sinister Father Duncombe (Alec Newman), who was insinuating Brenda couldn't be a good mum.
Luckily for Brenda, who'd experienced trauma and abuse her whole life, the women of Nonnatus House looked after her and gave her confidence in her mothering abilities. When Father Duncombe fired her from the church, Mother Mildred (Miriam Margolyes) offered Brenda and Primrose a home at The Mother House.
The episode ended with Mother Mildred taking the pair away, having announced she too would be going back to live at The Mother House.
Viewers were sad to see the character leave Poplar.
It remains to be seen whether Mother Mildred will return, but what we do know is season nine is shaping up to be an entertaining one.
The show's creator Heidi Thomas has said: “After a magical Christmas experience in the Hebrides featuring wild seas, stormy skies and some very disobedient sheep, we return to the harsher reality of city life in 1965. Society is changing fast and in series nine we will see Nonnatus House shaken to its foundations.”
Here's what you need to know about the series...
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