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Synopsis
A pitch-black hospital comedy emerging from the mire of the mundanity, bureaucracy and absurdity of health care with warmth, wit and laughter.
Ward B4 is a backwater of an NHS hospital – a depository for dying and discombobulated geriatric women. Beset by C. diff, form-filling and self-obsessed consultants, the minimal staff struggle with the daily grind – blithely enduring the absurd hurdles and obstacles of the system and getting through each day on cake and cigarettes. Sister Flixter is in charge of the ward, but drowning in paperwork, neuroses and relationship issues, she relies on the graft and common sense of return-to-practice nurse Kim Wilde, the lowest form of life on the ward – after the lino. The patients, of course, are the least of their problems, especially compared to the jargon-fueled, stool-obsessed, ward doctor, Pippa Moore, and a new male matron who is determined to do things by the book.
“piercingly weird, coldly plausible, heartbreaking and hilarious.”--The Times “bleak but brilliant” Metro “relentlessly funny” The Mirror “Moving, darkly funny and truthful in the way that it skewers the ludicrous, labyrinthine bureaucracy... Unmissable” The Guardian
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Bloody brilliant comedy with a heart. All the cast are excellent, filmed fantastically and unfortunatly a fair representation of the the new 'management by numbers' NHS. God help us all when we get older.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
I saw this show when I was on holiday in the UK last summer. I am a nurse and could relate to so much of the black humour. This show had me falling off my hotel bed, laughing. I wanted to share it with all of my friends back home in Canada. This is what ward nursing is really like....not code blues and doctors flirting with nurses....it's code "browns", beaurocratic nightmares and disoriented patients. The cast is amazing...Jo Brand's subtle dead-pan delivery is hilarious to watch. The women who play the "patients" are so realisitc they seem like they've been plucked from a nearby nursing home. This show is suberbly understated comedic genious. Eagerly awaiting the second series.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
I have to say from the start that I am only 3 episodes into this on TV, but already it is in my opinion among the best TV shows I've ever seen. This may be because I have experience of NHS working from an outside point of view and feel for the staff in real life and this should be part of all nurse training from now on!
The main roles are played with the perfect mix of emotion and comedy timing. The patients, particularly the angry patient in the second episode, just captures the emotional chaos inside the mind of the elderly with more heart than I have ever seen. You laugh at what is going on and then a short cut scene had you desperately fighting for the character.
I think this show deserves to be praised so highly, but feel that the fact it probably won't will only contribute to it's inevitable retrospective praise.
In a day and age when comedy seems to think that it has to live in the realms of terror and the impossible, the most shocking and brilliant humour is actually from the most real and human show.
Breathtaking stuff.
The main roles are played with the perfect mix of emotion and comedy timing. The patients, particularly the angry patient in the second episode, just captures the emotional chaos inside the mind of the elderly with more heart than I have ever seen. You laugh at what is going on and then a short cut scene had you desperately fighting for the character.
I think this show deserves to be praised so highly, but feel that the fact it probably won't will only contribute to it's inevitable retrospective praise.
In a day and age when comedy seems to think that it has to live in the realms of terror and the impossible, the most shocking and brilliant humour is actually from the most real and human show.
Breathtaking stuff.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Pure genius!
This is an absolute gem. I had caught some of the second series on BBC Three and found it painfully funny, so thought I'd get the first series too. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Alastair
Splendid
Intelligent, witty and well researched. Particularly recommended for people working in the health sector. Read more
Published 5 months ago by sam spade
Evidence that Florence would wonder what's happening to nursing...
This humorous yet truly a reality check that nursing has moved from a practical, sensitive, approach to caring for the elderly in hospital-- to paperwork, incident reports, and... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Margaret
The best show I've seen in years
I'm a doctor in Australia, and coming from a public health system modelled on the NHS, all I can say is THIS IS THE REAL THING. Read more
Published 11 months ago by S. Becker
Too close to the truth!
It's like watching a documentary at some points! Having worked in the NHS for 9 years I cannot believe this was written by someone without extensive experience of the futility of... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Dr. M. Carswell
absolutely hilarious
I bought this dvd as a bit of an experiment as i had never seen it on tv.It was absolutely hilarious poking fun at the NHS, such dark comedy but fabulous. Read more
Published 13 months ago by feisty lady
jo brand at one of her best
forget the likes of casualty and holby... this is a real insight into the workings of the nhs .. so very acurate had me laughing from beginning to end , shall definatly be getting... Read more
Published 14 months ago by lisabtd
Very Depressing - do not watch if you are a NHS geriatric patient!
This is a very depressing 'black comedy'. i didn't find it funny and the special features - interviews with the characters were even worse. Read more
Published 14 months ago by misha
Bloody Brilliant!
"Getting On" is an absolutely hilarious series, which gives insight in the day to day running of a busy NHS ward. Nurses especially will find it funny (being a nurse myself). Read more
Published 15 months ago by Gizmo
The real NHS?
This took me back to nursing in the early 80s so don't know if it's a reflection of today's reality, but the charaters are so well observed. Great writing & acting. Loved it.
Published 16 months ago by L. Penn
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