‘Call the Midwife’ season 3, episode 3 preview: (PBS): Shelagh’s tough times; Chummy’s birthday

Season 3 of “Call the Midwife” is a bit of a roller coaster ride, at least in that there are some highs and lows that tend to take place in it from start to finish. So what do we classify Sunday’s episode as? While it does mark a step up from the previous two episodes, there is still a greater level of excellence that the show can get to. (You will see that a little later in this episode.)

There are once again some isolated storylines dominating the plot, with one of the biggest ones this time being a tale regarding a pregnant inmate who has been through some pretty terrible times. As the synopsis below reveals, though, there is also a tale involving Shelagh that could build towards some larger things to come:

“Sister Julienne and Trixie assist a pregnant prison inmate who’s worried that social services will deem her an unfit mother and take her baby. Sister Julienne puts her reputation on the line to help mother and child stay together. Shelagh suffers heartbreak when a routine pregnancy check turns out to be something far more serious.

“For Chummy’s birthday, Fred gets tickets for the gang to see My Fair Lady, but they’re turned away at the box office because their tickets are forged. Alec tells Jenny he loves her, but she can’t return the sentiment.”

The promo below gives us a closer look at a couple of these stories, including the celebration into Chummy’s birthday and the troubles that await Trixie and company in prison. At least this prison does allow for more of an opportunity to see what conditions were like for women in this time, and also what sort of inmates are locked up there in the first place.