ONE TO WATCH
This woman's work
Call the Midwife / BBC One, January
Perhaps because its annual Christmas special has become a fixture of Yuletide programming, Call the Midwife has a reputation among some viewers as being undemanding fare. Or perhaps this perception is down to plain old sexism. Begging the forgiveness of Stephen McCann's Dr Patrick Turner, this is a drama that focuses primarily on women's experiences rather than manly goings-on.
Without suggesting that every moment of every episode is an exercise in gritty social realism, it's also a show that's unafraid to tackle big issues – including the grinding effects of poverty, alcoholism, abortion and the Thalidomide scandal. The new and 12th series is a case in point, in that it begins in 1968. This was the year when Enoch Powell gave his infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’
