Paul Whitehouse

Another radio comedy gets a TV transfer. This time, Paul Whitehouse parades his chameleonic character-acting skills in a more worthwhile setting than those damned insurance ads. His straight woman is Esther Coles's community mental health nurse Liz, whose daily rounds see her lending a therapeutic ear to everyone from dotty old dears to brittle ex-cons. A few of the characters veer close to stereotype but this is deftly performed, with a layer of melancholic empathy below its gentle surface.

Radio Times review

Paul Whitehouse, David Cummings and Esther Coles's accomplished Radio 4 comedy, which engaged intelligently with mental health issues, has here been sensitively rescaled for the small screen.

Coles plays a community nurse meeting an array of characters (some new and mainly played by Whitehouse). They include Billy the agoraphobic ex-con, Herbert the ageing rake and - probably most memorably - the morbidly obese Graham who is engaged in a terrible, co-dependent relationship with his obsessive mother and her revoltingly unhealthy cooking.

There are nose-snortingly outrageous laughs aplenty as we'd expect from any Whitehouse stable. But, thanks to the judiciousness and ebullience of the writing and the tenderness and skill of the performances, they never detract from the narrative's essential humanity and warmth.

Video: Paul Whitehouse on mental health comedy Nurse

Paul Whitehouse is known for his larger than life characters, catchphrases and 25 year partnership with Harry Enfield.

This week, he returns to our screens - but his new series takes on an issue that's no laughing matter.

Nurse follows the life of an overstretched community mental health health worker, played by Esther Coles, as she does her daily rounds.

Nurse, BBC2 - TV review

No punchlines, no catchphrases, just Paul Whitehouse tugging at our heartstrings.

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Paul Whitehouse interview

"In any field where there is professional involvement and tragedy, there is also humour," says Whitehouse. "Call it gallows humour or whatever, but there always is. So I don't think we're doing anything that can be construed as laughing at these people."

"There is nothing very funny about mental illness. Yet that's exactly the central theme in comedian Paul Whitehouse's latest show.

The four-part bittersweet comedy - already a radio success - is all about community psychiatric nurse Liz (played by RADA-trained actress Esther Coles) whom we follow doing her daily rounds.

"Nurse is a project close to my heart," explains Paul, 56, who co-wrote and starred in 90s hit The Fast Show.

"We've all got people who have experienced mental illness, and my mum was a community nurse for a while."

Each episode sees Liz visiting the homes of patients - or 'service users' as they're now called - who are all characters played by Paul.

Among them are an Alzheimer's sufferer and her frustrated son, a desperately lonely woman who only has her cats for company and a morbidly obese man with an unhealthy attachment to this mother.

Rather than mocking the vulnerable members of our community, Paul - who sought expert medical advice during filming - insists the show explores and raises awareness of important topics.

"People with mental health issues are more likely to talk about their problems," he says, "so this was a way of addressing them in a way that was heightened.

"But they're universal fears - loss of love and libido, loneliness, fear - these are things coming to us all.

"We're proud of the show and it would be nice if we got people talking more about mental health."

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Paul Whitehouse gives BBC comedy a shot in the arm with his hilarious new four-part series, Nurse.

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