the writers might have been accused of labouring that point. Except that the situation in which they placed their comedy was the female geriatric ward of an NHS hospital, a place where it's perfectly reasonable that men should have bit parts. There's nothing overtly feminist about the show. It just flips the usual run of things quite naturally, so that the men in the show are the romantic incidentals and love interests, viewed through the eyes of women in a matriarchal bubble. Such a perspective is incredibly rare. Even "strong female leads" are usually seen "making it in a man's world" or bound by special girly friendships that often have the whiff of co-dependence about them. These three women have nothing in common apart from the fact that they spend their working lives together. Vicki Pepperdine is Dr Pippa Moore, the ward consultant. Grossly self-important, she views her patients as fodder for the Vag At (vaginal atrophy) research that she hopes will make her reputation and thereby attract custom to the lucrative private clinic she intends to launch. The thing she can't bear about her husband having left her for another woman is that the other woman isn't even younger. Joanna Scanlan is Den, short for Denise, the ward sister confused as to whether her priority is being a good nurse or being a good administrator, and dimly aware she hasn't quite got what it takes to be either. If she had a bit more self-awareness, she'd be cynical. Instead,