The fact that Dutch actor Rut­ger Hauer plays one of the leads in this hos­pi­tal com­e­dy should have guar­an­teed that view­ers would take a look at it, but the sec­ond episode more than jus­ti­fies a return. Hauer clam­mi­ly deliv­ers lessons in east­ern phi­los­o­phy (culled unless our ear deceives us from a most unlike­ly source) as he prac­tis­es his golf putt, sur­round­ed by a young, ener­getic cast who do all the heavy lifting.

Porters, a pitch-dark show fea­tur­ing a group of hos­pi­tal porters who vary between the unpleas­ant, the delud­ed and the psy­cho­path­ic. Sub­jects for hilar­i­ty on Wednes­day ranged from men­tal ill­ness to a bloke smash­ing a dead rab­bi on the head with a mobile phone. This is not, then, a pro­gramme for those who like their com­e­dy lov­able. On the oth­er hand, the plot­ting is inven­tive (at times alarm­ing­ly so), there are plen­ty of good lines, and, as in Green Wing, the heart­less­ness some­how ends up being brac­ing rather than mean-spirited.

Dave’s new three-part sit­com Porters is a fine addi­tion to the pan­theon of med­ical come­dies, height­en­ing the weird­ness of that strange world…a nim­ble script and top-rate cast­ing – Kelsey Gram­mar as a guest! – make it a delight on its own. Dan Sefton’s script is full of out­landish sce­nar­ios and daft lines that often sur­prise, packed in at a live­ly pace and cre­at­ing a sense of fun often miss­ing from mod­ern come­dies of cringe…the prog­no­sis for Porters is def­i­nite­ly good.