All this was evident in episode five, which focused on the story of Roseanne Dawley (Celeste Dodwell), a prim young wife expecting her first baby. To start with her life looked golden – doting husband, comfortable home, crystal vase of fresh flowers – even if she did end up abruptly giving birth at home alone in weeping terror and a remarkably unscathed silk shift dress. Dodwell did a fine job portraying what happened next, as Roseanne, suffering from what was then played down as the “baby blues”, turned blank-faced, failed to bond with her baby and ran away. Naturally, the midwives and nuns of Nonnatus House saved the day, tracing her medical history to discover that she was an orphan who had turned to prostitution. “Shame will put us in all kinds of prisons if we let it,” as Nurse Crane (Linda Bassett), the likeably no-nonsense sage of Leeds, put it. We then saw a perfect family tableau, as Roseanne adoringly nursed her baby, her earlier difficulties magically resolved. It was both genuinely moving, and irritatingly neat.
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