The team behind Call the Midwife has been praised by viewers of the BBC show after Sunday's episode tackled a highly sensitive subject and had fans in floods of tears. The period drama follows a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s and 1960s.
In the latest episode, one midwife, Sister Veronica, visits the Talbot family, made up of Sandy - who has just married Joe Talbot - and her children, Peter and Ann Marie. However, during the episode Sandy reveals that she is a victim of emotional, physical and sexual abuse within her marriage. Later in the episode, Sandy is seen the taking matter to the police - however, her reporting of such a crime cannot be acted on as, as she is told, "the offence does not exist". She is later told that: "Legally, rape is only grounds for divorce if the husband rapes another woman, not his wife. Also, because you've been married for under three years, you will have to prove exceptional hardship or depravity."
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Vowing to expose Joe for his brutality, towards the end of the episode viewers witness Sandy seeking out help to dissolve her marriage with a signed letter of support from Sister Veronica. Writing on the official Twitter account following the episode airing, Call The Midwife quoted one of Sandy's lines and explained this. It wrote: "'But the blood on the sheets EXISTS. My bruises EXIST.'
"Shockingly, the crime of rape within a marriage did not exist in English law until the 1990s, and was first laid out explicitly under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. #CallTheMidwife @BBCOne".
Viewers soon took to social media following the show to applaud the programme and the BBC for handling a hard topic with such sensitivity. One wrote: "Tonight's #CallTheMidwife episode was a toughie with real hard subject storylines. Well done & Big up to @StephenMcGann & production team & cast for handling them with such sensitivity! @CallTheMidwife1 @helen_george @LauraMain1"
Another said: "Well I’ve gotta say that was a very powerful episode that’s when TV is done right highlighting important issues respectfully well done BBC #CallTheMidwife". And a third commented on the episode saying: "#CallTheMidwife is outstanding at highlighting how women suffered because of male privilege - how it be even feasible that a woman couldn’t be raped by her husband before 1992!!! 1992, just 30 years ago!! such an important and impactful episode".
Rape Crisis England and Wales also commented on this episode, writing: "Tonight's episode of #CallTheMidwife deals with the issue of marital rape. This is important to highlight given that 1 in 2 rapes against women are carried out by their partner or ex-partner. Sexual consent must be freely given every time; without it, it's rape and it's illegal."
Many viewers were disgusted to find out that the crime was only made illegal in 1992. According to the Radio Times, in 1736 it was legalised by an English jurist named Sir Matthew Hale, who wrote in his common-law treatise: "For by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract, the wife hath given herself up in this kind unto the husband which she cannot retract."
In 1822, a barrister named John Frederick Archbold supported this with his own legal document that stated a husband "cannot be guilty of a rape upon his wife". Change only came about in 1991, as reported by the publication, after a case titled R v R in which a man challenged the conviction of his attempted of rape of his wife on the grounds of this centuries old law. The House of Lords reviewed the case and "overturned the original ruling".
Call the Midwife continues next Sunday on BBC1.
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