After the big BAFTA success for her hit comedy Getting On, Jo Brand is now returning as nurse Kim Wilde in Going Forward, a new three-part series to be shown later this year on BBC4.
“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,” laughs Jo.
In this new show, Kim is working as a Care Assistant in the community, and things aren’t great benefits-wise. She receives little more than the minimum wage for a job that means hours of unpaid overtime, management bullying and horrendous shifts. Her daily slog is matched only by that of her husband, Dave (comedian Omid Djalili), a self-employed private hire driver battling long days and grumpy customers.
Kim’s also dealing with her ailing mum, three kids, a dog called Carpet, an unfinished extension and a busybody sister Jackie who has a plan to sort out all the family’s woes at a stroke.
BBC’s comedy commissioner, Shane Allen, says: “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 ever more dependent parents. It’s a world Jo knows well as she brings truth, depth, heart and humour to our everyday world.”
