“You’ve only to look at the two of you to see the love, and after you’ve fought so hard to be in Colette’s life?” she persists. Luckily, Phyllis still has “a couple of shots to use up” before she has to send the films off to the Dairy, meaning there’s still time for Nancy and Colette to pose for a family portrait of their own. In the episode’s heartwarming final shot, we see the pair looking through the photos together.

Elsewhere in the episode, there are plenty of reminders that a family isn’t necessarily all about two parents and 2.4 children living in a picture-perfect home.

The O’Connors are a young couple who, at the start of this week’s instalment, are living in a caravan on the edge of a construction site; Imelda (Grainne Good) is in the late stages of her second pregnancy, but they are soon thrown out of their temporary home.

Their story, we’re shown, is sadly one of many similar cases: every day, people queue up outside the Tower Hamlets housing office, desperately trying to secure safe, clean accommodation, and every day many are turned away. Though Call The Midwife is a period piece, now taking place in the late 1960s, the episode can’t help but strike a chord. The House of Lords Built Environment Committee published a housebuilding report last year that found a “serious shortage” of social housing; the cost of living crisis and rising rent have also made housing insecurity a major concern.

Call The Midwife season 12 episode 7 recap: how the show makes a crucial point about the true meaning of family