Humourous hurt:

Adam Kay

When the global recession started to bite back in 2007, commentators mused that comedy would be one of the few vocations to benefit in such a perilous economic environment. After all, we all want a good laugh to make us forget about the world’s woes. So who better than a comedy medic to thrive during a period when a pandemic is occupying the fevered minds of populations and the front pages of publications?

Adam Kay isn’t a man who needs a brand new disease to keep him in material (whether it’s too soon for gags on the coronavirus is for each and every comedian and audience to decide), as he has a back-catalogue of tales from his time as a junior doctor that could keep him performing quite happily for the duration of his career.

Through songs and entries from his own diaries, This Is Going To Hurt has been a hit for a few years now both on stage (the show made its live debut in 2016 and has been a sell-out across two runs of the Edinburgh Fringe), as well as in printed form. After its 2017 publication, it became a Sunday Times bestseller as well as gaining Adam some gongs, chief among them the Blackwell’s Debut Of The Year prize.

Covering the years of his medical training from 2004 to 2010, the fragile state of the National Health Service and the even more delicate mental and physical wellbeing of those who have worked within its walls is laid out in all its bleary-eyed detail.

Chances are that there will be much crossing of legs and wincing of the face by members of the audience at some of the ickier anecdotes which Adam airs.

With the book and live show of This Is Going To Hurt doing such a roaring trade, the inevitable next step is adapting it for TV. And that’s precisely what BBC Two are looking to do, having given the green light to an eight-part series, with the comedydrama’s production company having won a 12-way bidding war for the show’s rights. Upon confirmed news in 2018 of the TV version, Adam himself stated “It’s been a huge privilege to have my diaries reach so many readers and it’s been absolutely humbling to see their reaction.

“I’m beyond delighted to now be able to share my story with a far wider audience and make the viewers of BBC Two laugh, cry and vomit.”

While much of Adam’s story and humour is of the frankly adult and bleakly funny variety, he’s now trying his hand at entertaining the little people with a new book.

Due out in October, Kay’s Anatomy is aimed at those youngsters between eight and 12 years, offering a simple guide to “the strange, surprising and sickening world of how our bodies work”. alhambradunfermline.com

Author and comedian Adam Kay is set to appear in Dunfermline.