This Thursday (12 June) at 9pm ‘Damned’, a new one-off comedy about social work written by Jo Brand and Morwenna Banks, will screen on Sky Arts 1 HD. Check out a clip from the show above. Brand, a former mental health nurse whose mum was a social worker, has previous form in taking a comic look at public services with her comedy Getting On set in an NHS ward.
Here’s a blurb on ‘Damned’ from the Sky Arts website…
“Irritable, menopausal single parent Rose (Jo Brand) is having a bad day. After leaving her three sick children to be cared for by her mother, she breaks her phone, drops her coffee and arrives late for work at the social services department.
There’s no respite in the office, though, as Rose finds the floor as chaotic as her home. Martin (Kevin Eldon), a former colleague who was let go due to mental problems, has managed to get into the building again, while Nat (Rebekah Staton), a new temp devoid of any common sense, is struggling to get to grips with simple tasks on her first day.
Rose’s experienced, yet jaded, colleague Al (Alan Davies) helps her through the morning, taking every opportunity to mock and tease the colourful characters that make up the rest of the floor. Al hates the bureaucracy that comes with his job and consequently finds himself in constant battle with his pedantic and badly-dressed co-worker Nitin (Romesh Ranganathan), a former policeman obsessed with performance targets.
Rose’s day gets gradually worse, a check on her mother and children leads her to discover they have all disappeared. Returning to the pandemonium of her office in a state of panic, Rose quickly finds herself faced with a crisis that threatens to throw her career into jeopardy.”
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Ive been a child care social worker for more years than I care to remember and this clip encapsulates the whole ethos of the job.
Thank goodness Jo has taken time to look into the sometimes fruitless workings of ‘working together’.
Please please please put it out on regular tv too – I can’t afford Sky on social work income.
Well done Jo and well done Morwenna
I was a social worker for over 30 years and looked forward to this programme. I was so disappointed as I thought it would at last give a true picture of the work and I always had a high regard for Jo Brand and Alan Davies.
First, I did not think the show was that funny. Second, if it was true and I was their Director I would have sacked the lot of them. The office seemed, over-staffed, under-employed, and work-shy. What if there had been real emergencies at the end of the phone calls no-one wanted to answer? Why did the character played by Alan warn that Jo should not stay long in the place she was visiting as it was “a rough area”? Did they think social workers visited only “nice” areas?
Loved it! The opening scene where Jo dropped her bag, broke her phone, split her coffee and locked herself out of the house with 3 sick kids inside waiting for their granny to turn up. And then off she goes to work which is just as manic! Fave bits: The policeman in the strategy meeting ‘can I say something, this coffee tastes like shit’ the manky fridge, Martin answering the phone and telling the caller to ‘calm down sir’ the strategy of RLF, the dozy temp & Nitin’s pedantic ways. There was the target setting social work manager missing though who wants everything done yesterday and wants to constantly allocate work. 30 minutes wasn’t long enough. Please please commission this as a series, something like The Office or Drop the Dead Donkey
great but when can we see the rest. whats the point in showing us something comical to lighten the stresses and relate to the chaos and industry if we can’t have more episodes to follow. I am getting bored with Emmerdale and Eastenders so could do with a new half hr of telly to escape to.