TV week ahead

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 16:24

PICK OF THE WEEK Getting On BBC4, Wednesday, 10pm

Though medical sitcoms are hardly uncommon, most treat their settings as abstract backdrops. Scrubs, for all its sharp quips and scrappy irreverence, avoids life or death dilemmas so deftly its plots could easily be transposed on to any workplace.

But Getting On, a darkly funny offering which is part of the BBC's Grey Expectations age awareness season, makes more insightful use of its locale. Set in a forgotten NHS Trust Geriatrics Ward, this is a hospital sitcom that actively addresses the grim everyday grind of nursing and the uncomfortable realities of decrepitude. Brilliantly directed by Peter Capaldi, with a verit tone reminiscent of The Office at its bleakest, it could hardly be less glamorous. But, though its premise suggests a vulgar collision of deadpan and bedpan, its black wit is leavened by a genuine concern for elderly patients and those tasked with their care.

Headlining an impressive core cast, all of whom share writing credits, is Jo Brand whose drolly monikered Nurse Kim Wilde serves as our guide.

BEST COMEDY

Psychoville

BBC2, Thursday, 10pm

After several weeks of escalating weirdness and mounting plot complications, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's comedy thriller series deviates even further from the norm for this audacious offering. Shot as an extended homage to Hitchcock's classic Rope, this three-hander follows mother and son serial killing duo Maureen and David Sowerbutts as they try to rid themselves of an unwanted housecaller.

Following the great director's blueprint, the action is confined to a single set and plays out in one apparently continuous take and, though any Hitchcock pastiches invariably fall far short of greatness, the execution here is worthy of the master himself. The real-time pacing lends suspense to the proceedings. The intimate focus gives the Sowerbutts extra tragic-comic depths. And the mysterious caller (a name actor whose identity it would be unsporting to reveal) proves a worthy foe for our industrious maniacs.

Also try: Taking The Flak (BBC2, 9pm). Martin Jarvis and Doon Mackichan don body armour for this dark new sitcom about rival war correspondents.

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Us Now

More4, Friday, 11.10pm

With social media technologies such as Twitter offering us endless scope for remote interaction, filmmaker Ivo Gormley explores "the greatest social change since the invention of the printing press": the internet. It proves a fascinating trek, with organisations like financial co-op Zopa, and Ebbsfleet United, a football team managed online by its fans, exploring a bold new world of civic empowerment.

Also try: True Stories: Maximum Jail (More4, Tuesday, 10pm, ). Twelve years after his award-winning profile of Louisiana's Angola Prison, filmmaker Jonathan Stack returns there.

BEST SCI-FI

Torchwood: Children Of Earth

BBC1, Monday to Friday, 9pm

With the Timelord still on sabbatical and STV's Primeval now regrettably extinct, the schedules this third series of the post-watershed Doctor Who spin-off should find us more receptive to its pulpy charms.

Spread across the week this tense five-parter finds Cardiff's planetary defenders battling an invading alien vanguard who possess children.

BEST SCIENCE DOCUMENTARY

For All Mankind

BBC4, Monday, 8.45pm

Though the BBC's Moon season has yielded a bounty of fascinating programmes, nothing can rival this classic from filmmaker Al Reinert, originally unveiled to mark the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. with an oneiric score by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.

Also try: Inside Nature's Giants: The Whale (Monday, 9pm, Channel 4). Mark Evans explores the inner workings of a leviathan.