BEST OF THE REST
PORTERS Dave, 10pm
BILLED as an upstairs/downstairs medical sitcom with wheels, this funny and fresh comedy follows the lives of some eccentric hospital porters.
At St Etheldreda’s Hospital, viewers navigate life and death via hospital trolleys and the cast of fairly useless porters who have usually got better things to do than their actual job.
Series two sees a new arrival, played by Daniel Mays, usually seen in dramas like Line Of Duty.
He plays Anthony, a replacement for Tillman, who has temporarily headed off to a religious retreat to visit his old friend the Dalai Lama.
But Frankie (Susan Wokoma) has history with Anthony and she’s not pleased to see him, especially when he tries to take a cut of her black market perfume empire.
Meanwhile, there’s a nightmare for Simon (Edward Easton) when Lucy (Claudia Jessie) reveals her news – she’s engaged to Dr McKenzie. Simon is a broken man, until he spots something unseemly that might just help his cause.
BETTER THINGS BBC2, 10pm
IT’S the season finale of this brilliantly observed US comedy drama from Pamela Adlon, which is worth digging out on iPlayer if you have missed it so far.
Pamela plays Sam, single mum to three daughters, Duke, Max and Frankie.
She also has a strained relationship with her British mother, played by Celia Imrie, who lives right across the road.
In this episode, Sam is desperate for some time for herself but as always her family puts a stop to that.
She has decided to take her mother to Santa Barbara for the weekend for her birthday. “We’re going to do activities together, it’s just going to be the two of us,” Sam says. But she’s not looking forward to it and Duke doesn’t want her to leave.
Meanwhile, Sam also gets a call from Frankie’s school – she’s in trouble because she’s using the boys’ toilets. “Mum you don’t understand,” says Frankie.
It’s all set up nicely for season two.