A new series of pilots kicks off with a medical comedy as sharp as a scalpel, brutally putting Jeremy Hunt and the NHS under the microscope. Actually no. Hospital People is more Carry On Nurse without the nurses and slightly misses a trick by not being particularly political. It is set in a fictional hospital and does at least touch on creeping NHS privatisation, but the main laughs are broad. And, praise be, there are plenty of them.
The star of the one-off is character comic Tom Binns, who plays all the main roles. Live comedy fans will already be familiar with the funniest creation here, sad hospital radio DJ Ivan "He's bonkers" Brackenbury. A man who probably dreams of being famous enough to be on the front pages of the tabloids in a Yewtree-type scandal. Instead he is confined to broadcasting inappropriate songs to sick patients – ie Feargal Sharkey's A Good Heart Is Hard Too Find for someone about to have a cardiac operation.
There is not much depth to Brackenbury. He makes Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge seem textured. But the baseball-capped twat is very funny, with a little streak of sadness running through him – he knows that he is never going to make it big so tries to make the most of his tiny empire, bossing his sidekick and grimacing through his jingles.
Elsewhere another Binns stage character, Ian D Montfort, crops up as a hospital porter who thinks he has psychic powers. But does he heck. He can barely find the right corridor, never mind the right name of a dead relative. And then there are other highlights, including Binns cross-dressing as cost-cutting hospital manager Susan Mitchell, a comedy-loving Scouse priest called Kenny who thinks John Bishop would kill to have a sense of humour like his, and a hypchrondriac who can't bear to leave the ward.
It is mostly done in a documentary style that we've become familiar with, full of David Brentish glances at the camera from characters who either quite like the idea of being on TV or don't want the cameras there. This is the sort of thing that Peter Kay or the aforementioned Coogan did so well early on in their careers. Both went on to bigger things and while this might not make Binns a household name it is certainly a one-off that leaves you wanting more.
Watch Hospital People on iPlayer here.
