Adam Kay: This is Going to Hurt, Palace Theatre

Adam Kay lifted the lid on the pressures faced by doctors and other NHS staff with his darkly funny, best-selling memoir This is Going to Hurt. In it, the junior doctor-turned-writer and comedian uses the diaries he kept between 2005 and 2010 to chronicle the 97-hour weeks, life-and-death decisions, and other unspeakable truths about the reality of working for the under-funded, over-stretched NHS, which eventually led to him hanging up his scrubs.

A natural performer, Kay has since created a live stage show version of This is Going to Hurt, which has enjoyed sell-out success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe between 2016 and 2019. The show has also enjoyed a UK-wide tour and stints in the West End, where it's returning this June for a week-long run at the Palace Theatre.

Adam Kay

The West End comes ahead of an eight-part BBC adaptation, starring Ben Wishaw, the release date of which is yet to be announced. Since the pandemic began, Kay has gone on to publish an anthology, Dear NHS, in which 100 household names give thanks to the health service through telling their own personal experiences of using it. Not one to stint on work, Kay also published his first children's book, Kay’s Anatomy: A Complete (and Completely Disgusting) Guide to the Human Body, in October 2020.