This Is Going to Hurt: Who is Adam Kay and is he still a doctor?

Adam Kay is being portrayed by Ben Whishaw in This Is Going To Hurt (Picture: Getty/Rex/BBC)

Back in 2017 in a pre-coronavirus world, doctor-turned-comedian Adam Kay released his factual memoir of his time working for the NHS, This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, which has now been adapted into a BBC drama series.

Although the series retells Kay’s experiences of the NHS between 2004 and 2010, there has never been a more appropriate time for the release of the book’s TV adaptation.

After nearly two years of living through the Covid-19 pandemic which has exposed the public to what frontline workers must experience day in day out, Kay pens the release of the BBC drama adaptation as ‘a love letter to the NHS’.

So who is Adam Kay, how can you watch the series, and who are the cast members?

Who is Adam Kay – is he still a doctor?

Adam Kay, 41, is a former doctor, comedian, and author. Kay served in the NHS between 2004 and 2010, working as an obstetrics and gynecology trainee.

He has since had writing credits linked to Crims, Mrs. Brown’s Boys, and Mitchell and Webb.

Adam Kay and his memoir This Is Going To Hurt (Picture: Getty Images)

Kay now lives in Oxfordshire, with his Game of Thrones executive Husband James Farrell.

Speaking about the TV adaptation of his best seller, Kay said he is ‘beyond delighted to now be able to share my story with a far wider audience and make the viewers of BBC laugh, cry and vomit.’

Why did Adam Kay quit being a doctor?

Kay decided to leave the profession after witnessing a patient suffer a placental abruption which led to the stillbirth of her child.

‘I’d had many difficult days at work prior to that and my coping mechanisms were enough to deal with those. But there was a maximum I could deal with and it was that day.’ he told the Belfast Telegraph in 2019.

‘If that day hadn’t happened, I would have continued as a doctor. But the truth is, that day would have happened at some point.’

What is the book about?

The book gripped the nation, winning copious awards such as Book of the Year and New Writer of the Year. Kay’s work also remained the Sunday Times Number One Bestseller for just over eight months.

With a typical British blend of humour and sadness, the all-encompassing tell-all memoir reveals the realities junior doctors must face, from 97-hour weeks to making snap life or death decisions on a daily basis.

It comprises diary entries written throughout Kay’s time as a doctor. He recalls saving his first life, comically removing foreign objects, as well as being there for patients’ first and last breaths.

Kay also reveals the financial and social pressures the job inflicted on him, constantly aware that the hospital car parking meter was ‘earning more than him’.

When does the series air?

This Is Going To Hurt star Ben Whishaw (Picture: Anika Molnar/BBC)

The series airs every Tuesday at 9pm on BBC One.

You can catch up on previous episodes on BBC iPlayer.

Who is in the cast?

Paddington bear and James Bond actor Ben Whishaw stars as the on screen portrayal of narrator Adam Kay and plays the lead role in the adaptation.

Whishaw has said of filming the TV series – ‘The thing that the show has done for me in terms of opening my eyes is just the sheer levels of exhaustion’.

He continues, ‘It shouldn’t be shocking because it’s so obvious if you think about what these people are actually doing and dealing with every day… I think we take it for granted, actually.’

Other stars include Chewing Gum and Fleabag actor Kadiff Kirwan, Star Wars actress Dame Harriet Walter, Ambika Mod, Alex Jennings and Michele Austin.

This Is Going To Hurt continues tonight at 9pm on BBC One.

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