Next week sees the launch of Nurse – the brand new comedy from the legendary Paul Whitehouse – and a couple of familiar faces are on board.

The four part series – a spin-off from the BBC Radio show of the same name – focuses on community psychiatric nurse Liz, played by former Peak Practise star Esther Coles, who TVO readers may recognise from her guest roles in Tittybangbang. She’s also set to appear in the current series of House of Fools on 16th March.

Liz’s rounds involve meeting a variety of patients – most of whom are played by Paul Whitehouse, fully utilising his talent as a man of many, many personas. Shifting his facial expressions, vocal chords and body movements, Whitehouse becomes (at times) almost unrecognisable: thanks to a bit of handy prosthetics along the way.

Also on board for the show are regular collaborator Simon Day as Tony Beckton, and fellow TVO regular and similar man-of-many-faces Colin Hoult as Terry. Rosie Cavalero – of Hunderby and Saxondale fame – also appears as a variety of characters, and our readers may also recognise her from appearances in Inside No. 9, It’s Kevin and Crackanory amongst others.

Fans of Psychoville will have also spotted the delightful Vilma Hollingbery, who charmed audiences as Mrs Wren alongside Reece Shearsmith’s Mr Jelly, in the lead image above. Hollingberry’s other credits include Not Going Out, Grass and Doctor Who, so it’s naturally a pleasure to see her again!

The result is a bittersweet comedy that laughs with, rather than at the kind of people it presents to an audience, and is remarkably poignant as a result.  A real breath of fresh air on our airwaves at the moment, it arrives on Tuesday evening at 10pm over on BBC Two, and will be available on iPlayer shortly after transmission.