We’ve already featured Call the Midwife (a BBC drama set in the east end of London in the 1950s and 1960s in which lots of poor people have lots of babies), but the show is still going strong — and rightly so: for the most part it’s great stuff — so it’s time for a couple of updates…
(Note: Instead of titling this feature “Call the Midwife Again” I toyed with the notion of “Hit Me Baby One More Time” but apparently that’s “inappropriate.”)
In series 11, episode 3 (broadcast 16 January 2022), newish midwife nurse Nancy Corrigan (my new favourite character, played by Megan Cusack) browses the comics in the Buckles’ shop…
Nancy ultimately chooses a copy of Judy because that issue comes with a free gift, which I personally don’t think is a very good reason. Still, me being me, I was compelled to track down the issue.
Judy, DC Thomson, 16 Jan 1960 to 11 May 1991, 1635 issues, absorbed Emma and Tracy before being combined with Mandy to create Mandy & Judy.
You’ll notice that the actual issue does not come with a free gift: the on-screen version has been doctored (or nursed)…
There are also copies of Diana on display, but unfortunately I’ve not yet been able to find a clear image of the cover so we’ll have to make do with the one from the show.
Diana, DC Thomson, 23 Feb 1963 to 27 Nov 1976, 720 issues, absorbed Romeo along the way before being absorbed into Jackie.
The Victor and The Beano make cameo appearances on the lower shelf…
But surely there’s not enough of those covers visible for even Mighty Uncle Rusty to track down those specific issues?
Well, naysayers, you oughta gird your hats and hold onto your… um… never mind. Just brace yourselves, because I was indeed able to find them!
The Victor, DC Thomson, 25 Feb 1961 to 21 Nov 1992, 1657 issues, absorbed The New Hotspur, The Wizard (1970), Warlord, Scoop, Buddy and Champ.
The copy of The Beano was a little trickier to identify because there’s so little to go on apart from the masthead, but luckily the shape and colour of the title of Biffo the Bear’s strip differed from week to week (I figure they were hand-drawn each time), so it was simply a matter of finding the most likely match, which happened to be the issue cover-dated a week after the above issue of The Victor.
The Beano, DC Thomson, launched 30 Jul 1938 and still going strong with 4146+ issues, never absorbed any other comics.
Pop quiz, kids: can you tell me why it’s apt that Nancy is choosing between a selection of DC Thomson comics?
Answer: Because one of the most popular characters in DC Thomson’s famous Twinkle comic was… Nurse Nancy! See? Cool, eh?
And there you were thinking that a midwife character was given the name Nancy because it’s short for “Pregnancy.”
Season 12, episode 1, broadcast 1 January 2023, and we’re again in the newsagents with comics on display, but this time they’re just in the background and not integral to the plot.
Anyway, here’s a nice clear shot of the comic shelf:
The Beano, DC Thomson, 30 Jul 1938 to sometime in the far future with any luck.
The Dandy, DC Thomson, 4 Dec 1937 to 4 Dec 2012, 3610 issues, absorbed Nutty and Hoot. (See also our recent feature.)
The New Hotspur, (DC Thomson, 24 Oct 1959 to 24 Jan 1981, 1110 issues, relaunch of The Hotspur (1933 to 1959), absorbed The Hornet & The Crunch, absorbed into The Victor.
Yes, once again it’s only DC Thomson titles. Perhaps in 1968 in the Poplar district of London the kids just didn’t go for titles by Fleetway or any of the other publishers, but it’s more likely that the set-dressers simply searched for comics of roughly the right date and said, “Yep, that’ll do. It’s not like anyone will care that much! I mean, if someone’s obsessive enough to pause the show and photograph the screen in order to see exactly which comics we’re using, well then, heh, the very best of luck to ’em, I say!” To which I reply, “Thanks!” and “Can you please send me the comics when you’re done with them?”
Then again, perhaps all those DC Thomson titles is an example of what my wife and I call the Diet Lilt Phenomenon.
See, a couple of decades ago in Mrs Rusty’s place of work they had a soft drinks vending machine that was restocked about once a month, and naturally by the end of the month all the best stuff would be long gone, and the only drink left would be Diet Lilt. Well, at one point someone in charge apparently saw the contents of the machine and concluded “We have lots of Diet Lilt, it must be popular, therefore next time we’ll order twice as much.” And so they did, meaning that next month the best stuff ran out even sooner and everyone had to drink Diet Lilt.
All that probably proves something or other about human nature but, y’know, this is a comics blog so we’ll leave it there.
The new series is only one episode in so I’m hoping that there’ll be more comics to show you soon, folks!
Season 12, episode 3, broadcast 15 January 2023. Nurse Nancy pays another visit to the newsagents — but this time the comics are only barely visible. And what’s more, they’re the exact same issues as last time!
I don’t think this episode is supposed to be set less than a week after the comics’ appearance two episodes ago, so maybe the Buckles are having trouble with their distributor.
Rusty Staples 
Interesting! I’ve never watched the show so I wouldn’t have known about this. As they’re all facsimiles of DC Thomson comics I wonder if they have an agreement with Thomsons who print the comics for them? (Presumably they’re blank inside.)
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Maybe, yeah. I don’t know much about prop-buying and set-dressing, but I’ve always assumed that the people involved have contacts in *every* industry!
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