Huge news from the Beeb today, as it’s been announced that former junior doctor Adam Kay will be adapting his own runaway bestseller, This Is Is Going To Hurt, for BBC Two.
The new 8-part comedy-drama series was commissioned by BBC Drama Controller Piers Wenger, and here’s a synopsis of the Sunday Times’ number one book, which has won plenty of awards since its publication last year, having been championed by the likes of Charlie Brooker and Stephen Fry:
Kay’s diaries were scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, and tell the unvarnished truth of life as a junior doctor: the 97-hour weeks, the life and death decisions, the constant tsunami of bodily fluids and the fact the hospital parking meter earns more than you.
This is Going to Hurt is a blisteringly funny, politically enraging and frequently heart-breaking wake-up call to anyone who values the NHS, and a frank and moving love letter to the 1.4 million people working on the front line every day.
Set on labour ward with all its hilarity and heart-lifting highs but also its gut-wrenching lows, the show delivers a brutally honest depiction of life as a junior doctor on the wards, and the toll the job can take back home.
“Junior doctors tend to have a rather quiet voice compared to the politicians, which is understandable – you don’t have much spare time if you’re working 100 hour weeks,” said Kay in a statement. “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.”
Executive Producer Naomi de Pear added “Hospitals are remarkable places where human beings are seen in all of their glory – where people are their bravest, kindest and sometimes silliest. And the world is envious of our hospitals for a reason, because they represent a system built on the humane belief that people deserve to be treated equally whatever their financial situation, especially in their hour of need. We want this show to be a call to arms.”
More on this as we get it.