Going Forward with a follow-up to Getting On

BBC Four has commissioned Jo Brand to make a follow-up to her hospital sitcom Getting On.

Going Forward will focus on the care the NHS offers in patients' own homes, and again features Brand playing nurse Kim Wilde.

Focussing on Wilde's home life, the 'bittersweet' three-part series also stars Omid Djalili as her husband Dave, a self-employed  driver, and Tom Davis as his colleague Terry.

Wilde also has to cope with an ailing mum, three kids, a dog – and an unfinished extension – as each episode unfolds over a different day.

The BBC says: 'Going Forward is a universal tale and holds a mirror to modern Britain and the sacrifices made as lives are put on hold for the sake of others'. 

Jo Brand, who also wrote the show, said: 'Having failed the auditions for Darts Players’ Wives, it's lovely to slip into a glamorous lilac nurses tunic and step into the exotic world of community health care.'

And BBC Four editor Cassian Harrison added: 'I’m delighted to have Jo and the Getting On team returning to BBC Four. Getting On was a defining series for the channel and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the story has moved on in the intervening years.'

Harrison commissioned the show with BBC comedy chief Shane Allen, who said; 'Jo’s naturalism as a performer is mesmerising, the casting is spot on and the writing is sublime. This is the world of zero-hours contracts alongside juggling the responsibilities and demands of that middle generation with demanding children and evermore dependent parents.  It’s a world Jo knows well as she brings truth, depth, heart and humour to our everyday world. 

'It’s a great accompanying series to The Detectorists in cementing BBC Four’s reputation for the biggest names in British comedy to make distinctive and heartfelt comedy centred around ordinary lives, whilst tackling broader themes about contemporary society.'

Going Forward, which is  directed by Michael Cumming and produced by Geoff Atkinson for Vera, will air on BBC Four later this year.
 

Published: 9 Mar 2016