(graceful music) - The great thing about this series is it, like "Call the Midwife" so often does, it meets the things of that particular time head on.

- Women have been put down since time immemorial, and we aren't going to put up with it anymore.

- First off, Rosalind, she's visiting a patient who has a women's lib meeting in her bedroom.

She's just completely like enthralled by all these women really confidently talking about this upcoming march, and she immediately is like, well, we're obviously going to be going to the march.

- Filming the scenes where we get to burn our bras, and also the march, was so brilliant for us, and so spirited and I think there was a freedom in it, which has been a long time coming for these characters over the years, and the fact that still at this point women still couldn't get mortgages and have their own bank accounts.

And so it's really important, especially after what's happened with Trixie.

I kept thinking, "My husband had the power to run our finances into the ground without telling me."

- Some of it entails the women saying, right, the things we normally do in the house, we're not gonna do anymore, because it's this special time where we will remind you of what women are doing for nothing.

- Patrick, are you up yet?

The coffee's on.

- Turner himself has always talked of big progressive fights as you know if you've watched the series, he's very open-minded.

But still, I like the nuances where he's still a little bit caught out.

Have you left as a casserole or something?

- That's not how women's strike works.

- I was 21 in '71, and so I was very much into women's lib, women's movement, I was, you know, part of it, I'm proud to say.

It informed everything at that time, everything, our relationships with men, our relationships with each other.

- Yeah, I think it was a great sisterhood thing, wasn't it?

- It was, it was.

- It was.

- (gasps) Millicent.

You're reading "The Female Eunuch."

- The authoress makes a series of very sensible points.

- I'd never burnt a bra.

- I've never burnt a bra, I was desperate to get a bra at in those days, (Linda chuckles) so I wouldn't have burnt one if I'd got one.

(vibrant music) - Jeffrey's series is such a joy.

He's become really good friends with Sister Veronica.

- The thing I think people don't understand about the life I chose is (sighs) so much of it is silence.

- And he's helping her through a real rite of passage, and it's gorgeous how he does it, and how he just listens, really listens to her, and she's got a lot in her mind and in her heart.

- Well, Sister Veronica is at a bit of a crossroads in her life.

I think as much as I thought I knew her at the beginning of this season, I think that she's really surprised me, she's surprised herself.

So I think she's learning and growing in real time, and we're gonna see a journey for Sister Veronica.

She'll be forever changed by this series.

(gentle music) - Cyril and Rosalyn get really close really quickly.

Things take a turn.

An unexpected turn.

- Rosie in this series, I think she grows up a lot.

(Cyril and Rosalyn kiss) Cyril, I'm in my uniform.

(both chuckle) And you're in your slippers.

And a lot happens with her and Cyril in their relationship, and I think that they're tested.

- And he has to wrestle with Rosalyn's parents and how they may view him.

Do they accept the relationship in society?

And so there's a lot for Cyril to contend with this season.

- Cyril comes to pick me up from women's liberation meetings if they finish late.

- Well, very gallant of him.

Although I expect you to intervene if she starts wearing dungarees.

(Major Aubrey, Josephine and Rosalyn chuckle) - I think for me, one of the strongest storylines that's affected me is this external threat over Nonnatus House, and what was happening in the NHS at the time, and what was happening with these community nurses and nuns, the fact that they were being made to choose between the habit and their work.

If Nonnatus House is to survive at all, we are all going to be national health employees, and the new rules state that we will have to dress as such or leave the system.

- Politically, Turner's fighting a battle that ultimately he's not winning.

Because we all know in history, the NHS did change, things aren't the same as they were back then, so at some point it had to change, and Turner must have had to be part of that change and we're gonna see it, and it's gonna be hard for him.

There must be a chance that they'll keep funding the Nonnatus House when they take control from the council.

- Not if we insist on retaining our religious clothing.

- Having that looming threat over Nonnatus House, which we'd been pushing away for years, and just having it inch closer and closer, and this year pounding on our door, has been terrifying to read every episode.

(gentle music continues)