Call the Midwife season 14 episode 6 spoilers follow.
Call the Midwife's nurse Joyce Highland (Renee Bailey) was dealt a devastating blow in the show's latest episode when a tense encounter with a patient led to allegations that now threaten her career.
This is not at all what viewers were expecting when the charismatic patient Bernie Midgley (Eliza Collings) waddled into the office of the maternity ward, a gift of rum babas in hand for Miss Higgins (Georgie Glen) and co., despite her being the one in labour. There was an endearing quality to her rough-around-the-edges, every(wo)man attitude.
Bernie continued to charm and the few moments with her husband painted the picture of a family with a lot of heart and love to give.
This is also certainly not a situation one would have expected to find the conscientious, warm and supportive Joyce in, yet things soured between the pair instantly upon meeting.
When Bernie's newborn daughter began to fuss, Joyce was quick to offer helpful advice, which Bernie uncharacteristically brushed off. After a curt response she asked, "Where are those nice nurses from yesterday?"
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From her terse manner and the way she looked Nurse Highland up and down in a disgusted way it isn't hard to infer that when she said 'nice nurses' she really meant 'white nurses'.
Bernie's racial prejudice quickly began to take shape through the sharp change in her attitude when speaking to any person of colour. Things took a clearly identifiable and sinister shift when Sister Catherine (Molly Vevers) and Joyce paid Mrs Midgely a home visit.
The look that clouded her face when Joyce entered the room after Sister Catherine was the first clue, but clues were rendered redundant when Bernie was once again short with Joyce over the advice she gave. Sister Catherine attempted to support her colleague but received a tongue lashing from the mother who accused Joyce of being a bad influence on the Sister.
Bernie ordered both ladies out before Joyce could complete her post-partum examination on Bernie, which is where all the trouble began.
Joyce returned to call on Bernie after her husband telephoned Nonnatus House concerned about his wife's health.
Despite the chilly welcome Joyce received (the words "Oh for crying out loud," uttered upon acknowledgement of her arrival) Joyce did her best to see to a reluctant Bernie, who writhed in pain. Bernie refused yet another examination despite her evident agony.
Instead she blamed Joyce for her pain, saying, "I haven't been right since you were ordering me out of my bed at the maternity home," and it didn't take long before the insults were flying.
"I never wanted a Black person touching me then and I sure as hell don't want one touching me now," she hurled at Joyce.
Resigned to the fact that she wouldn't be able to do her job, Joyce – with the utmost dignity – informed Bernie that she was going to ask Doctor Turner (Stephen McGann) to make an urgent visit.
Joyce's shaken call to the surgery suggesting that Bernie had potential deep vein thrombosis was heartbreaking. Watching her care so diligently in the face of such horrendous bigotry was heavy. But Call the Midwife took the ugliness one step further.
"Bernie Midgley says she intends to make a formal complaint against Joyce," Doctor Turner told Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter), who was as flummoxed as any sane person who knew Joyce would be. Still, that pretty much tracks for Bernie, who claimed Joyce "never looked after [her] properly. If I died it would have been her fault," she told Doctor Turner.
Things took an even darker twist when it was revealed that it would be Joyce's word against Bernie's, owing to the fact that Joyce was alone during her most recent visit to Bernie's home.
A Black, immigrant woman's word against that of a white woman in a country prone to racial discrimination hardly seems like a fair starting point and yet that's the one Joyce is given. Her whole career is now teetering on the edge.
As uncomfortable and enraging as this storyline is, Call the Midwife takes the right approach in dragging it out beyond the usual episodic story arc. It is reflective of how these situations often are.
The extension of this storyline allows Call the Midwife to explore the impact of racial persecution from several angles.
Sister Julienne's ignorance to the racial abuse Joyce quietly suffers on a day-to-day basis as a practising nurse is one such way. It is indicative of the privilege Sister Julienne is automatically awarded by virtue of being white. She isn't hyperaware of these issues because she never has to face them. Nor have most of the nurses or Sisters who have reported to her over the years.
"It's everywhere and in everything," Joyce said when asked if this is something she's experienced before, the inescapability of it closing in on her. It's a crushing realisation for Sister Julienne but a learning she can take forward.
Joyce's experience even trickled into the advice she later gave to Rosalind (Natalie Quarry) when she warned her not to pursue things with Cyril (Zephryn Taitte), demonstrating the lingering effects of her trauma.
As difficult as it is to watch Joyce's suffering be prolonged (and as raw as it may feel for anyone who has encountered something similar) Call the Midwife shows reverence to the experience by exploring it in more fullness than one episode can allow, making for more impactful storytelling.
Call the Midwife airs on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
