All’s well that ends well.
Trixie has been consumed by wedding planning during season 12 of Call the Midwife, pulling out all the stops to ensure that the momentous occasion matches her lofty expectations.
“She wants to plan the perfect day, for him [Matthew] as well,” Helen George told RadioTimes.com. “There’s a lot of pressure because he has been married before. And the family that he’s part of as well, she feels that pressure too.”
But Trixie is dealt a setback the day before she’s due to walk down the aisle.
The Aylward family tiara that she had her heart set on wearing is no longer in their possession. Matthew’s mother sold it to a friend, the money from which his parents spent on a cruise to revitalise his father when his health was failing.
“Don’t you dare follow me in here,” she spits at Matthew following an explosive row, leaving him alone in the street.
Just hours before the wedding, she had nothing to secure her veil with, and the plan for her something old, borrowed and blue had been scuppered.
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Fortunately for Trixie, her colleagues and friends had a solution. Nurse Crane and Shelagh made her a pill box hat from the remnants of her wedding dress, their design “stitched with love”.
If the pair are ever motivated to begin a new venture, a hat shop could be just the ticket.
“It’s perfect,” says an emotional Trixie, dazzled by their brilliance and show of affection towards her.
Miss Higgins then presents her with one of her handkerchiefs as her something borrowed, and she’s also given a bow fashioned out of her old uniform and one of the sister’s habits as her something blue.
“You can sew it inside the hem of your wedding gown or underneath the train,” says Nurse Crane. “Nobody will see it, but you’ll know you’ve got a piece of Nonnatus House with you, and so will we.”
Trixie sheds happy tears as she’s embraced by her sisterhood, the women holding onto one another as they have through the myriad storms they’ve faced together.
Above all else, Call the Midwife is about the collective heart of Nonnatus House. It’s about the love and support they offer one another, particularly in moments of crisis, with all of the parts coalescing to create the whole. Trixie carries all of those women within her and now she’ll carry a piece of Nonnatus House down the aisle with her.
The union at the heart of the wedding is the centrepiece, but it’s also a way of paying tribute to that unique, unshakeable bond – and that wouldn’t have happened had the tiara not been sold.
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Miraculously, Matthew manages to track down the accessory but after a conversation, she decides not to wear it, instead choosing the gift her friends made for her.
It’s “simpler, better”, she says, adding: “Something that doesn’t distract me from the fact I’m marrying you for you.”
As with the phone call they shared during the infection outbreak on the maternity ward, that scene strips away all of the noise, banishing the surface level frivolities, such as the tiara, and calming the waters. It centres the pair of them and highlights what really matters: not titles or names, but their commitment to one another.
Matthew also admits that he detests the tiara but would have wanted Trixie to wear it had it made her happy, and she would likely have worn it because he had gone to the effort of finding it for her, which is the perfect encapsulation of their relationship.
Despite their confrontations and the locking of horns, their love and devotion to one another is unquestionable. They are one another’s mirror and while their journey hasn’t always been smooth-sailing, they are exactly where they need to be.
All 12 seasons of Call the Midwife are available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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