There are two TV programmes I'm half following at the moment.  By this what I mean is that I tend to see them on i-player because they are aired at times I'm not at home or if I am have other things to do.

Call The Midwife, with some absolutely genius casting (in my view - Miranda Hart as Chummy - perfect!) is a pretty faithful adaptation of the book of the same name which I read a number of years ago when it was first published.  Last year someone lent me the full trilogy which was a superb read.  The dramatisation is funny and sad and informative and, in my view, surprisingly political, with each episode ending with some remark about how the changes in health and social care after WWII worked for good or ill in the lives of real people.  At a time when NHS reforms, especially in England, and welfare reforms across the UK are a cause of such anxiety, it is sobering to realise what life was like not so very long ago.  I find the little political comments in the 'voice overs' at the end quite astute and acute; although they are as per the book they carry extra weight in being broadcast.

Young Doctors, Your Life in Their Hands, now in its second series follows some carefully selected F1 and F2 junior doctors during their August to February rotation.  I thoroughly enjoyed the first series, which was set in Newcastle.  So far with this second series I am reserving judgement.  Set in London, I find some of my south-centrism nerves get jangled, and I have to work hard to move past the portrayal of some of these doctors as rather brattish.  It is good to watch these young people grow in confidence and competence, but already series two is becoming a bit of a clone of series one - the unsuccessful resuscitation (how many times do we need to be told 9 out 10 won't make it?), the inability to cannulate a patient, the first encounter with death, etc.

For me it is interesting to compare and contrast 1950's East London, as portrayed in the drama, with 2010's Westminster & Chelsea, as portrayed in the documentary.  What has changed and what is the same...