Getting On: Series 2 (2010)

Expanded to a full series of 6 episodes, Getting On's second outing has been just as funny and full of marvellous characters as the first series, with the bonus of being able to follow stories for longer. Jo Brand continues to excel as the lovably real Nurse Kim Wilde, while Joanna Scanlan's lovelorn Sister Den Flixster takes her relationship with Ricky Grover's sexually confused jobsworth Matron Hilary Loftus to new heights of embarrassment. Vicki Pepperdine is pitch perfect as the socially awkward Doctor Pippa Moore, and her confrontations with her Nurse and Ward Sister are toe-curling to watch. 

I was really impressed with the ongoing storyline featuring Lindy Whiteford as the daughter of one of the ward's geriatric patients. Battling against hospital visiting hours and bans on flowers, and dealing with her mother's estate, while travelling down from Scotland, Whiteford convincingly portrayed an emotionally drained, yet polite version of the public, facing a hospital staff that is being graded on targets and corporate bullshit, and forgets about caring for patients and their families. Nurse Wilde tries her best to combat the new PC way of doing things, and this realism introduces a darker side to the writing that doesn't always show the NHS in a good light. The mix of the mundane, the macabre and the mirthful makes Getting On a great series to watch. Only next series, I hope they dispense with the sea-sick inducing camera movement, it was the only blight on the spotless whole.