What is PKU, or Phenylketonuria? Call the Midwife diagnosis explained In episode five, the midwives and Dr Turner come across a child with a rare genetic disorder.
Sunday, 16th May 2021 at 8:24 pm
Over the years, Call the Midwife has taught us many lessons about medicine and childbirth – but in season 10 episode five, we’re talking about a
literal lesson as Shelagh Turner (Laura Main) stands in front of her blackboard quizzing her pupil midwives about “post-natal testing for mother & baby”.
Advertisement
One of the things mentioned is a urine test for PKU, or phenylketonuria, which Shelagh describes as “exceptionally uncommon”. Sadly, it’s not uncommon enough and, later in the same episode, Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) comes across a child suffering from the condition.
Over the course of its ten seasons,
Call the Midwife the beloved BBC show about the midwives of London s East End in the 1950s and 60s has introduced fans to a large cast of charming characters. While some, like Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter), Shelagh Turner (Laura Main), and Trixie (Helen George) have been a part of the show since the beginning, there have also been a number of nurse and nuns who have walked from the halls of Nonnatus House and on to new adventures.
Easily among the most missed of these departed characters has to be Camilla Fortescue Cholomondely-Browne (later Noakes) aka Chummy the endearing, clutzy, endlessly kind nurse played by Miranda Hart in the first four seasons of the show. And while most of the cast members who have stepped away from