Rhod Gilbert was driving on the motorway, on his way to perform a comedy gig in Barnstaple, when he got the call. He’d been to the doctor a few weeks before with concerns about a lump in his neck, and now his GP was ringing with the results. The doctor advised him it might be best to pull over, so he did. Then came the news: Gilbert had neck, throat, tongue and tonsil cancer. He hung up the phone, turned around and drove straight back to Wales. Gilbert cried a lot on that journey, tears clouding his vision on the road. Then he cranked up the music on his car stereo, as loud as it could go, and sang his heart out all the way home.
The Welsh comedian swings between these extremes of emotion – from crumpled despair to an almost maniacal giddiness – throughout his Channel 4 documentary, A Pain in the Neck. As in all of the network’s Stand Up to Cancer programming, this 50-minute film has appeals for donations before each ad break, along with stark stats: half of us will get cancer in our lifetimes. In his gravel-voiced opening gambit, Gilbert says, “When I got cancer, to be honest, I was terrified. So I wanted to do something to take my mind off it, make the whole thing feel less scary, and maybe help other people, too. So I decided to film it all. I really hope that my story gives you a little hope.”
