New BBC series This Is Going To Hurt has proved to be a hit with viewers for its unflinching portrayal of life for many healthcare workers.
Described as a ‘love letter to the NHS’, the show is a candid story of life and death as told by a junior doctor.
It stars Ben Whishaw and is based on the best-selling, non-fiction memoir of the same name by author Adam Kay.
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It follows Adam in his chaotic job in obstetrics and gynaecology as he deals with the disorder and fatigue of hospital life - from unexpected births to shock deaths of patients.
At the same time, he has to navigate his personal relationships, including his parents - to whom he has not yet come out.
Adam Kay, now 41, was a doctor between 2004 to 2010. He worked for a number of years as an obstetrics and gynaecology trainer before leaving medicine for a career in writing.
His first book was This Is Going to Hurt, which was based on his diaries from his former career as a doctor. It became an instant bestseller after it was published in 2017.
What other books has Adam Kay written?
Kay’s second book, Twas the Nightshift before Christmas, was released in October 2019. For the follow-up book, Kay delved back into his diaries for a sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrifying look behind the curtain at the NHS over Christmas - paying tribute to all the healthcare workers who give up time with their families over the festive period to help sick people. It was also a bestseller.
What TV shows has Adam Kay worked on?
Kay founded the parody music group Amateur Transplants in the early part of the 2000s, with their songs mostly dealing with medical subjects. One of their tracks London Underground, written to the tune of The Jam’s Going Underground, gained some popularity on the internet in the UK in 2005.
Kay is also an established screenwriter. He wrote and co-created 2015 BBC Three sitcom Crims - about two men sent to a young offenders' institution after one involves the other in a bank robbery without telling him first.
Other shows which he has worked on as a writer and script editor include Mrs Brown’s Boys, Very British Problems, Up the Women, Mitchell and Webb and Child Genius.
In April 2020 it was announced that Kay would curate and edit a collection of personal stories about the NHS. The book - called Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You - was published the following July and included letters from the likes of Sir Paul McCartney and Dawn French.
Who is Adam Kay married to?
Kay lives in Oxfordshire with his husband James Farrell, an executive on Game of Thrones.
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