Green Wing

Hello, hello and hello! Today, fine readers, I am here to talk to you about the criminally underrated television series called Green Wing.

This was the best representation of the show I could find. for real.

So it's that time of the month again - no, I'm not talking about periods, I'm talking about that irrepressible desire to marathon a British Comedy. Because British Comedies are not watched in singular episodes, when it comes to the sometimes elusive British Comedy, you sit your ass down and you fasten your seatbelt and you prepare your eyeballs for some intense televisioning. But the question is, what do you watch? You've seen Black Books so many times you've lost count; you're talking along with the dialogue to  The IT Crowd because you know it so well and you made a start on Episodes, but then you got confused what episode you were on and feel like the stars aren't in the right position to start watching it again. So, what do you watch? Well my friends, that's where I introduce you to Green Wing.

  

I mean...he does make a point.

Green Wing takes place in a hospital and we the audience are introduced to the wacky and wonderful medical world in which Green Wing is set by following one Dr. Caroline Todd on her first day at the teaching hospital. We are then flooded with a bunch of characters you will soon come to know and love. I thought about listing them all but I thought that would take up far too much space when all I was going to do directly afterwards was talk about said characters. The thing I love about the characters is that they are all terrible, terrible people. Sure, they have their redeeming moments and some are a lesser degree of terrible, but nonetheless, they're all awful. And it's amazing. The relationships between the characters are all great and every character more or less does intertwine with every other character, but there are definitely some cliques of friendships, so I shall group them together. I'll try and keep this part quite short segments as there are a lot of characters and I don't wish to let this post run on for days.  So, let us start with:

The Girls: Caroline, Sue and Angela

Sue: the light of my life.

[Left to Right] Caroline Todd (Tamsin Greig), Sue White (Michelle Gomez) and Angela Hunter (Sarah Alexander) are our show's kind of leading ladies. There are of course other prolific female characters in Green Wing, but I'm going to put them under different categories later on in this post. So, like I said, Caroline is the new doctor at the hospital; Sue White is the incredibly unpredictable staff liaisons officer; and Angela Hunter, a well established doctor who knows what she's doing and yet seems to get dragged into the nonsensical actions of her co-workers. In my head, Caroline Todd represents characteristics that I think we can identify with greatly. She's desperate to make a good impression at her new job but doesn't take any shit from anyone. She's hilarious with a frantic (FRAN-tic, heh.) edge. Angela's friendship with Caroline is something I think we can all relate to. They are friends but they're...not? They have rivalries, they are jealous of each other and such, but at the end of the day, they have each others backs. Kinda. Now Sue. Sue is my personal favourite character on the show. She is absolutely crazy, wild and wacky. She is loud and Scottish and is amazing. Her scenes have had me crying with laughter. Michelle Gomez improvises a lot in Green Wing and I genuinely have been jealous of how funny she is. It's not fair. Leave some comedy talent for the rest of us.

The Guys: Guy, Mac and Martin

Context is for the weak.

 Guy Secretan (Steve Mangan), Mac Macartney (Julian Rhind-Tutt) and Martin Dear (Karl Theobald) are three doctors/surgeons in the hospital. Guy is reprehensible as the self-proclaimed love god who definitely doesn't get laid as often as he pretends to. Mac is his best friend (best frenemy at points), and their competitive natures are their most entertaining qualities, watching them try and constantly out-do each other is fantastic to watch. Mac is the more responsible character; more sensible but still a wise-cracking weirdo who is constantly under the lustful gaze of Sue White. There is a love-triangle element between Guy, Caroline and Mac (a love-square if you include Martin, although as hopelessly in love with her as he is, he was never a contender. Sorry dude!). Martin is wonderfully naive and a little bit too desperate to be friends with Guy and Mac.

The Admin Girls

"Click anon, let's send tumblr hate!"

Kim Alabaster (Sally Bretton), Naughty Rachel (Katie Lyons), Harriet Schulenburg (Olivia Colman) and Karen Ball (Lucinda Raikes) make up our delightful admin team. All of them perfectly embodying the office dynamic of serial gossipers. Although all are great in their own ways - Naughty Rachels unashamed love of all things, well, naughty; Kim's relationship with Boyce (a character which I'll discuss in a minute); Karen's deadpan humour; they're all great - I think my stand out character in this particular category would be Harriet. A scatter-brained mother of three young boys struggling to juggle her home life and her work life sounds like something straight out of a soap opera or some tragically depressing independent film, but in this instant, it's amazingly hilarious. Olivia Colman has been working her way up to be a household name, but before she gets swept up in the glamour of high fame, let us remember her here, in Green Wing.

Statham, Clore and Boyce

"You know what you need?
A one handed neck massage." 

This is just a regular monday morning at
the office for me. Anyone else?

Frustratingly enough, I was unable to find a picture which had all of Dr. Alan Statham (Mark Heap), Joanna Clore (Pippa Haywood) and Boyce (Oli Chris), so I've had to use two separate pictures which totally ruins the thing I had going. Boo Hiss. Anyway. The creepy, stammering and neurotic Statham and the age, looks and power-obsessed Clore are two characters having a not-so-secret affair in the office; and Boyce is the nemesis of said Statham. However as the series progresses, Boyce and Statham's relationship becomes hilariously blurred, questions of feelings and such are raised and never answered and left hanging in the air. I shan't go on as I don't want to spoil anything and if I don't stop now, I won't be able to restrain myself from ruining the show, so let's wrap things up, shall we?

In conclusion (well, I've got to remember how to structure essays come my return to uni in September!),  Green Wing is absolutely one of my favourite comedies in the world. There are two seasons plus a Christmas special and in my opinion the first season is definitely the strongest. Don't get me wrong, the shows entire run is fantastic and a highly recommended watch, but season one does have a special place in my heart. Some of the show is available on 4OD, but I don't think all the episodes are available to watch and the Christmas special isn't there either, so other means of watching it may be necessary. It perfectly combines a surrealism that is never directly explained or addressed during the show; it looks at the line where some comedies wouldn't dare cross and says, "fuck that!"; the jokes and gags and improvised lines are hilarious and the chemistry between all the actors are amazing, offering far and few between moments of tenderness, as the show can actually be quite sweet and somewhat heartbreaking at points. 

All in all, I think everyone should watch this programme, as I do think it's extremely underrated, as a lot of people whom I've chatted to in my lifetime have gushed and raved over the aforementioned Black Books and IT Crowd and so on and so forth, but have never heard of Green Wing. If you sound like you could fit the description as that type of person, well this is my gift unto you. Go forth, watch, laugh, and love.