I’m a doctor, get me out of here!
THIS IS GOING TO HURT BBC1, Tuesday, 9pm Ben Whishaw stars in an adaptation of Adam Kay’s painfully funny bestselling memoir of a junior medic
This Is Going To Hurt, a memoir by a former NHS obstetrician turned comedian graphically sparing no detail on every stomach-churning medical procedure, has become one of the most popular non-fiction books of recent years, thanks to the genius of Adam Kay.
While his writing doesn’t flinch from depicting a brutal medical reality light years removed from the cosily reassuring world of
Call The Midwife, it’s also packed with laugh-out-loud moments as Kay struggles to cope with the incessant demands of patients and attempts to keep his private life alive.
Now Kay has written a television adaptation that readers will relish, while others can discover his brilliance for the first time.
Powered by a terrific performance from the always excellent Ben Whishaw (above) as Kay, the seven-part drama takes you about as close as you can get to being in a hospital without having to set foot in the place. Following Kay frenetically rushing from one patient to another, we witness how he faces potentially life-or-death decisions about mothers and babies and carries out operations countless times on every long shift.
Be warned: it’s one thing to read about medical procedures, but seeing them recreated onscreen with forensic accuracy and a lot of blood may force some viewers to watch from between their fingers. But it’s also often very funny, with a script that lightens the drama with black comedy.
In the opening episode, Kay effortlessly slips back and forth between tending to a birth and busily texting to a friend who’s trying to arrange a stag night.
What quickly comes across is how all this gallows humour is the only way for these medical professionals to cope with responsibilities that would otherwise be too much to bear.
As for Whishaw, the Golden
Globe, Emmy and Bafta-winner, who’s probably best known as Q in the James Bond films and as the voice of Paddington Bear, is wonderful as a doctor trying to stay human and sane despite the constant exhaustion and all the emotion around him.
On screen in every scene, you can’t take your eyes off Whishaw. The only problem for critics will be running out of superlatives in trying to give him the praise he’s due. In fact, you’d bet there’s one more happy arrival that this obstetrician will surely deliver months from now: another Bafta.