Jo Brand

"Can we just stop there and get used to that layer?" says nurse Kim Wilde (Jo Brand) as she gingerly picks at the stinking garments worn by an as yet unidentified new admission to geriatric ward B4. Returning for a second series, Getting On remains about as far removed from conventional sitcoms as it's possible to get. Which, as the festering old lady is shunted around the hospital because the staff don't really want to deal with her and anyway they're preoccupied with their own personal psycho-dramas, is precisely why it's required viewing. Laugh-out-loud funny, tears-to-your-eyes sad. Marvellous.

Jo Brand's deliciously dark comedy returns for another series centred around a geriatric ward, and it's a healthy antidote to the soapy mania in Holby City and Casualty. There is a very grim streak of humour here, and as Jo used to work as a psychiatric nurse, you can probably assume what happens here is closer to the truth than you might like to imagine. Bleak, but also very funny.

Jo Brand's Getting On

"It's not a glamorous central London hospital. We wanted to do the antidote to Holby City where everyone's got so much make-up on and they do nursing care for twenty seconds and then they go and have an affair with the surgeon, or a patient comes in that they fancy."

Jo Brand and Peter Capaldi Interview

Director Peter Capaldi and star Jo Brand tell Adam Sweeting how their superb hospital sitcom Getting On sees the funny side of death.

Getting On: Series 2 Episode 1 review

This BBC Two comedy series, co-written by former nurse Jo Brand, is jet black satire that will probably be too much for some tastes.

Lunch with Mariella: Jo Brand

A mischievous conversation with the comedian covers everything from accepting lifts from strangers to the joys of peanut butter sandwiches.

An interview with Jo Brand

She's the left-wing feminist comic who thinks Jimmy Carr is a nice bloke ... would the real Jo Brand come forward.

You may recognise Rhod from his various panel show appearances, but here the Welsh comedian hosts his own show in which he answers some of the public's burning questions alongside Lloyd Langford - his flatmate - and Greg Davies, star of The Inbetweeners. This week the trio are joined by Jo Brand, Amanda Byram and Kate Silverton, but despite such a huge cast of guests, Gilbert's laconic style shines through.

Who is tvBite's least favourite person on QI this week? Alan Davies? KLAXON NOISE. Why, this week it's Phill Jupitus. Phil's 25th appearance on the show brings him level with Jo Brand as most-used guest. He moves above Alan as most annoying person because of that book where he claims to have invented great radio, despite presenting one of the most irritating shows ever. Maybe DJs should be allowed to choose their own music but they should also SHUT UP and not carry on in an annoying nasal whine. Even more annoying, Phill shouldn't have even been on the show but Sean Lock was stranded on the Isle Of Man.

Anyway, that's by the by. We like QI, in general and it is back with series H. (By the way, prepare yourself for an autumn of wistful mellow fruitiness because Stephen Fry will be everywhere. He has a book to flog and a live Albert Hall show to publicise). The episode is titled Hodge Podge, the other guests are Jack Dee, Ross Noble and over all there are many worse ways to begin your weekend.

Shown a year ago on BBC4, here's a much-deserved terrestrial repeat for this black-as-the-grave hospital comedy. An understaffed backwater of the NHS, B4 is the kind of ward where you're either afraid you're going to die, or, worse, worried that you might not.

Written by the cast - Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan - it's filmed in a documentary style, under unforgiving lighting and shot through with cold-eyed truth.

On B4, a lethal combination of self-interest, red tape, paperwork and political correctness conspire to ensure that nothing, least of all patient care, can be achieved. And that concept is perfectly encapsulated tonight by the drama of a poo on a chair.

Only three episodes were produced in this first series a second series of six episodes is now in the pipeline for this autumn. That will be on BBC4 as well - in case you thought it was only the NHS that made incomprehensible decisions...