A friend of mine saw Jo Brand in a nurses uniform at her hospital the other day so I suppose there is another series of this show coming: hence the belated review.
I've never got on with this program. The cold filters and joyless staff make it hard watching and the laughs just aren't there. My main beef however is that in contrary to what almost every review I've read has said, this is one of the most unrealistic portrayals of a hospital I've ever seen. Including Carry On Matron.
While Jo Brand has caught a flavour of the bureaucracy on NHS wards and the tendency to follow protocol over all else, Brand has utterly missed the feel of a ward. The scenes are empty and utterly, utterly quiet.
The main reason for this is that three quarter's of the staff are missing- where are all the other nurses? Where on earth are the junior doctors? No wonder things go wrong on this show, the only medical cover is an (admittedly fairly plausible) consultant and a gaggle of students.
Geriatric patients certainly don't lie mute in their beds. They are often pretty confused and you never quite know what is going to happen. On one memorable day someone pooed in Sister's office... There were no witnesses, so who was the culprit? An afternoon spent comparing the sample to patients' stool charts did not reveal the answer.
That's another point- where is the messing around? Green Wing captured it pretty well.
Perhaps the show is so grim that people assume it is accurate, which is frankly rather worrying. Cheer up viewers! everyday tragedy notwithstanding the average hospital ward is a far more pleasant and funnier place than this.
