Three episodes were simply not enough for the first series of Jo Brand, Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine's beautifully observed black comedy set in a NHS geriatric ward. Now it's back with a series that's twice as long, opening with the three once again running around straitjacketed by pointless protocol as a pongy homeless woman is wheeled through the doors of B4.

Getting On Review: Getting It Right

The first episode of the second series is wittier and sharper than many of its contemporaries.

Getting On: refreshing antidote to TV's youth obsession

It's so good to see the return of Getting On, a darkly funny comedy written with life experience with proper roles for grown-up women.

As an antidote to the glamour, heroics and sexual intrigue of Holby City, Getting On's black hospital humour is as startling as a cold bed pan.

Fans who clamoured for more of this hospital sitcom after the first mini-dose of just three episodes will be delighted to know it's back for six more weeks of agonising mirth.

Tonight opens with a typical patient dilemma for Nurse Kim Wilde and Sister Flixter (Jo Brand and Joanna Scanlan). An unidentified woman has been brought in who, in medical terms, can only be described as a stinky old tramp. Or, as the briskly ineffectual Dr Moore (Vicki Pepperdine) describes her condition: "Odour Plus, Plus".

Dr Moore is also eager to show her terrifyingly gormless student doctors the designs for the gleaming new hospital wing - complete with sculptures by Antony Gormley - that will make not one scrap of difference to the suffering of the patients and their families - or, indeed, any of the staff.

While Holby's eye-liner budget alone would probably pay a nurse's salary for a year, Getting On's depiction of life on ward B4 is so grimly realistic that you feel you should keep a bottle of anti-bacterial hand-wash next to the remote.

What it's doing languishing in a sideroom on BBC4 while Reggie Perrin basks in the private-ward comfort of BBC1 is frankly a mystery.

Getting On, BBC Four, review

Chris Harvey reviews the first episode of a new series of the hospital comedy Getting On (BBC Four) starring Jo Brand

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: deadpan with bedpans

Hilarious, frank and scalpel sharp, the hospital comedy Getting On is back. Tim Lusher has a checkup with its writer-stars.

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.

The third and final part sees Nurse Kim in trouble because of an alleged offensive remark she made about Matron Loftus. The ensuing "conflict resolution strategy meeting" doesn't go too well. There's some confusion over matron's sexuality, which is of special concern to sister Den, as they had something of a date (and a little bit more) together. Matron's revenge for the slur is a deep cleaning of the ward. It's all beautifully underplayed and sweetly nuanced - but only three episodes?