Getting On

7/13/2009 06:03:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 3 Comments

"Ward B4 is a world of slips, trips and hips, where health care is at its least glamorous. Sister Den Flixter, Nurse Kim Wilde and Dr Pippa Moore assemble for ward round. The daily grind of new admissions and discharges has begun, but Hilary Loftus, the new male modern matron, has just started work and an unsavoury stool sample and a dead patient give him cause for concern. Kim finishes a slice of the dead patient's birthday cake and heads for home."

'Getting On' written by Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan is an absolute gem hidden away on BBC4. Based on an elderly medicine ward it may not be the most obvious choice for comedy drama but it is inspired in it's ability to mix hilarity and heartache as depicts day to day life working in this often ignored area of the NHS.

The first episode focuses on the faeces on the chair. Someone, no-one is quite sure who, has poo'd on a chair. Beautifully satirising the layers of bureaucracy drowning the NHS it shows Nurse Kim's initial attempts to clear away the poo thwarted by multiple forms to fill in and Dr Moore's vital poo study she hopes to publish to update the Bristol Stool Chart.

Superb watching for anyone who has experience of elderly medicine and essential for everyone who intends to one day be an elderly person!

3 comments:

steph said...

Sounds brilliant! I did see a snippet of it advertised some weeks ago but never got around to viewing it.

Thanks for the reminder, Bendy. I could use a bit of hilarity.

Unknown said...

I wonder how badly the American version (when it comes) will mess up the good British idea.

Maddy said...

Sounds like I could do with a dose of that myself, one way or another. I do miss British telly and I love Jo Brand. I'll have to TIVO her and see if anything pops up.
Cheers