Vicki Pepperdine

Honest, warm and human, Getting On's wry dramatisation of the inefficiences of the NHS is as clever as it is funny; the script is a credit to Jo Brand, Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine. In the series finale, a group of schoolchildren arrives at the geriatric ward to sketch images of the patients and Sister Den (Scanlan) is sceptical: "Most are doolally, deaf or asleep. Good luck to them." Watch for cameo appearances by Hugh Bonneville and Tilda Swinton.

Getting On doesn't heave with belly laughs, it's more about smiling in pained recognition at the small things about life and death and the NHS. But there's a proper gut-buster of a gag on K2 ward tonight involving a Christmas card competition among hospital staff for the kids' oncology ward and an unfortunate guinea pig on the terrible Dr Moore's icky pet project.

Moore (Vicki Pepperdine) is at her tin-eared worst when she tries to save her skin and later when she has to break some bad news. The woman is barely on nodding acquaintance with compassion and, as usual, she has to leave the tenderness to others. Well, I say "tenderness", but in the case of wily Sister Den (Joanna Scanlan) it's more a case of revising history.

Getting On (Wednesday, BBC Four), an understated comedy set in a drab NHS ward is luckily still going. It is telling that there is a Thick of It connection, with Peter Capaldi directing early episodes. It stars, and is written by, Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan (another stalwart from The Thick of It).

I love the washed-out almost monochrome palette, the wobbly camera work, the avoidance of a laughter track, the naturalistic dialogue.

In the latest episode earnest, politically correct former Matron turned Business Consultant Hilary Loftus (Ricky Grover) was on fine form making sure all electrical appliances were turned off as part of a new green initiative. If you have had any experience of the NHS you will appreciate that this is depressingly well observed.

A blend of truth and razor-sharp wit is the defining feature of Getting On, the wonderful mockumentary set in a geriatric ward. Written by Jo Brand, Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine, the extended series three continues as Nurse Kim Wilde (Brand) tries to find a mentor for a training module and Dr Pippa Moore (Pepperdine) deals with the financial shenanigans of her husband. Kim, Pippa and Den (Scanlan) also battle with the latest rules on cost effectiveness implemented by the jargon-spouting Hilary Loftus (Ricky Grover).

As the second episode of this tart little anti-comedy begins, inept doctor Pippa (Vicki Pepperdine) is lost in a pod of isolation. Her husband has left her and her precious female genitalia project is in jeopardy.

Poor, emotionally illiterate Pippa; she is dismissive of everyone while being hollow with loneliness. Her colleagues Den and Kim (Joanna Scanlan and Jo Brand) laugh behind her back as they try to kick holes in the thick walls of NHS bureaucracy. For Den, this means changing her plans now she knows that pregnant staff members are entitled to a free fridge for expressed breast milk.

Vicki Pepperdine's fantastically annoying consultant Pippa continues to steal the show in Jo Brand's tragicomic sitcom. Whether she's lusting pathetically after Tobias Menzies's dashing database man or referring to groups as 'gents' regardless of their gender make-up, she leaves impenetrable jargon, small-scale chaos and widely felt irritation in her wake. Nor does Kim (Brand) reap the benefits of lending Den (Joanna Scanlon) a sympathetic ear when the latter starts to play the pregnancy card at ever opportunity. Hilary, meanwhile, is still lurking like a bad smell, even by the standards of ward whiffery in your average hospital. It's another effortlessly underplayed but very telling slice of NHS life: incisive and making its points at the same time as making us laugh - not an easy trick to pull off.

Dr Pippa Moore (Vicki Pepperdine) continues to attempt to breeze through her divorce in this charmingly understated hospital comedy tonight. Meanwhile, pregnant nurse Den Flixter (Joanna Scanlan) sharply adjusts her plans to resign when she discovers the benefits she's entitled to and Kim Wilde (Jo Brand) learns that putting herself through medical school will be no easy task.

Probably the best comedy drama currently on television, the third series of Getting On is still getting the laughs, although there's been quite a few changes.

For starters, the staff have been transferred to a new, brighter hospital. But this hasn't stopped Nurse Kim Wilde (Jo Brand), Sister Den Flixter (Joanna Scanlan) and Dr. Pippa Moore (Vicki Pepperdine) each - in their own way - trying to cope with their workload and each other. Their former matron, Hilary Loftus (Ricky Grover), has also now taken a consultancy role in the hospital, meaning he's just background noise - though he could have a say in who the hospital keeps as staff...

Most of the laughs come from the relationships between the three lead characters, helped along by solid acting and some cracking writing. Pippa had the best scenes in this opening episode, especially when chatting to some student doctors in the hope that they'd be interested in her latest medical project: an examination of "post-65 vulvas". Wonderfully funny, if slightly icky.

The drama is also coming off well, especially between Den and Hilary. This episode sees the staff going for medical check-ups, which sees Den discovering something shocking. I'll say no more.

Getting On's one of the best shows around, but as it is hidden away on BBC Four it's not given as big a profile as other shows. Maybe it might be time for a move to BBC Two?

Jo Brand's superlative Getting On returned for a third series. Thanks to its vérité stylings and politically inflected setting, this barely-comedy set in the NHS backwaters has oft been compared with The Thick of It, while shamefully acquiring nothing like its profile. Meanwhile, their fundamental differences are encapsulated in their respective main characters' voices: Peter Capaldi's barbaric bark and Brand's low-level drone.

Anyway, last week's opener had the central trio - Brand's nurse, Joanna Scanlan's matron, and Vicki Pepperdine's fabulously callous doctor - in a new-fangled ward but struggling with the usual mix of bureaucratic absurdities and each other. That it successfully interwove a distressing scene of an old woman having a panic attack and the line "I think you would have enjoyed getting your teeth into my vaginal atrophy" tells you all you need to know about the show's rare, nay American, sophistication.

If Getting On (BBC4), Jo Brand, Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine's sitcom set in a geriatric ward, makes it to a ninth series, I'll be very happy. Though to call it a sitcom is to do the show a disservice, as it's got far fewer gags and many more laughs than most. As well as being darkly funny - old age and death are both subjects rich in humour for the self-aware, the middle-aged or the deeply unpleasant - Getting On is also tender and surprisingly moving, as Nurse Kim (Brand) and Sister Den (Scanlan) try to ignore Dr Pippa (Pepperdine) and treat the patients with an entirely believable mixture of indifference and respect.

Most of all, everything about this show feels real and unforced: from what's included - such as the sheet shortages - to what's not. Few of the patients speak; fewer still have any visitors. Getting old is most definitely not for wimps, and Getting On should be prescribed viewing for everyone.