User reviews

My Review- There Will Be Pain

Streaming from March 1st on Foxtel on Demand My Rating. 8/10

Film buffs will remember Gone With the Wind and the tearful pronouncement, "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies, Miss Scarlett," from the black servant girl Prissy as she lazily strolls home with no Doctor to find Miss Melanie in full advanced labour and is told by Scarlet that she'll have to deliver the baby.

Well , after watching many episodes of Call the Midwife and now 7 episodes of this new gritty but also humorous drama series starring a favourite British Actor of mine Ben Whishaw in There Will Be Pain my knowledge of the joy and pain of childbirth has increased enormously.

The gentle nuns and midwives of Nonnatus House in Call the Midwife I'm sure would be appalled and dismayed at the state of midwifery services and the state of The British National Health System today.

There Will Be Pain is based on the diary entries of real life Adam Kay a Junior ex-doctor and author of the book of the same name .

The series was intended to be filmed in an actual hospital but due to Covid a huge set had to be built in an unused University building complete with a triage , operating theatre and labour ward.

It looks so authentic that when Adam Kay stepped on set, he got chills," and said he thought he was back in hospital." Ben Whishaw is superb in the role of Adam Kay a very capable and dedicated young Doctor with a black sense of humour and an attitude to match that gets him into some strife with his Superiors and a few co- workers especially his dry witted Chief Administrator Mr Lockhart played by Alex Jennings.

Adam like most of the overworked stressed hospital staff is trying to maintain his relationship with live in boyfriend Harry played by Rory Fleck Byrne .

It's a very timely series I think that really highlights the stress that our health workers are under especially knowing that this series was filmed during the Covid pandemic.

Expect blood, trauma and tears (both good and bad) Ben Whishaw as Junior Doctor Adam Kay makes mistakes and some bad judgements but has a good heart and tries his upmost to assist the patients he comes in contact with .

Ben Whishaw is on screen for a great part of this series and between the drama there are some very touching moments as usual no spoilers.

Most of the series takes place in the hospital but we do get to meet Adam's friends as well as his acerbic mother Veronique played by the wonderful Harriet Walter who Adam describes as when she walks into a room the temperature drops ten degrees.

Adam even gets a chance to see how the other half lives when he gets a few shifts in a posh private maternity ward with chandeliers butler service and designer scrubs and the experience is not what he expects .

This series really highlights the outcome of a Hospital system in crises that only affects the patients well being but shows the effects on the wellbeing of our health workers when they are overwhelmed with stress.

This is a very entertaining and very well produced series skilfully directed by Lucy Forbes and Tom Kingsley.

This is a really good series. Ben is a great actor everyone else is so good. The stories are funny, sad, serious. I hope they make another. I never read the book but there must be more to come. The last episode's childbrith scene is so graphic ! Dont miss this gem of a show.

So it may be the bottle of Prosecco I was drinking through the first couple of episodes OR the fact that I've listened to the audiobook read by Adam Kay himself a couple of times but this series rocked me and is the best experience I've had watching a series in a long time.

The main character is one who initially is difficult to connect with but over the series you understand why. I was stunned from episode 5 onwards and it once again is a great reminder of the service provided by the NHS and the importance of every individual involved. Thank you Adam Kay & BBC for sharing this with us all.

And pretty much flawless. Everything rings painfully true, but unlike with so many fact-based dramas, there's a real story here, as well as a damning indictment of healthcare underfunding and worker exploitation. With both the BBC and the NHS under threat from the relentless force of impersonal stupidity that is the Tory Party, it's good to see the one so passionately and brilliantly speak out for the other. Performances are universally excellent, characters are exceptionally well-rounded and complex and the lacerating hellishness of it all is leavened, for us and just about for them, with precisely the right degree of darkly acid humour.

That's a masterpiece. I don't remember when any tv show left me speechless(episode 6-7), I am watching a lot tho. The cast is genius, black humor weaving with drama twists are just brilliant.

There's very little to add to the headline because this is that one rare program that comes around every now and then on which you really can't think of ways to improve. Well-written, well-directed, well-set, and above all, with a bravura performance from Ben Whishaw -- who is somehow able to make a character both unsympathetic, sympathetic, cold, warm, hostile, sweet, and every other possible human characteristic. The rest of the cast is outstanding as well, especially Ambika Mod as the bedraggled young doctor doing her best, and Rory Fleck Byrne as Harry, doing his best to put up with the boyfriend who's barely present. (The show is also a blistering commentary on health care in the UK, making you hope you never get sick there).

The only possible improvement would be another season. Or two. Or more.

This is a very fast paced, gory and graphic, humorous depiction of a what would be a training hospital in the US. And I worked in one for 13 incredible years. This series covers it all! It brings back very fun and very sad memories - and I wouldn't have missed experiencing any of them! It also reminded me of the problem of dealing with a mate who wasn't a card carrying member of the hospital staff and the unique difficulties that created at home.

I like that it shows how people who are not in that world don't understand it. Don't understand why Ada is late to functions, why he falls asleep in his car, why he chooses his job first and the outside world second. Why he got back at awful patients. (Treat your entire hospital staff nicely!!)

This show is a treat in the best way. It's freakin' brilliant, fast paced and smart for anyone who wants to watch a great TV series. Oh. And yes. It can get a bit graphic, but what doesn't these days. Get over it. It lasts literally a split second. Or two. It's LIFE - like you have probably never been privy to before. How lucky are you?!

Hang on to your scrubs, you're in for a bumpy ride!

I was hoping when I read this book that it would be serialised but also that it wouldn't lose anything in the process.

I needn't have worried the script is as sharp as a scalpel and expertly delivered by a superb team.

You wouldn't want to be squeamish though.

Thoroughly recommended.

A must watch for sure. Story is engaging, Ben Whishaw is amazing.

I saw the trailer first and that made me read the book (a must read too), and then finally got to watch this.

I hope we are getting more of this kind of realist show. Truly an insight into a broken system and what doctors went through.

I enjoyed this, with some reservations.

Its not a patch on the book - it is a different thing, feels different. The book is laugh out loud funny, I barely laughed watching this. What came across as humour in the book came across as very dark sarcasm here.

That said, its watchable. I enjoyed it, mostly. Some of the characters are well formed and played well.

Ben Whishaw's character is interesting but surely too downbeat for people to want to be around him at all?

Its very dark, with a few shards of light keeping it bearable. Theres not an awful lot of hope - everyone is at their wits end with no sign of things getting better.

Probably the best thing I've seen on BBC for quite some time.

This show is a must watch because one minute you'll be laughing out loud then the next minute you will be sobbing your heart out.

And there are some moments where you feel that Ben Whishaw character is talking to you directly.

The show starts off good and characters are interesting but just more and more through the show it is depressing and negative and you just feel sorry for everyone. The lighting in the show is dark and sad as well. You would think there would be some upbeat incidences that would balance things off a bit. But it just makes everything in life just seem like a misery. I've watched 4 episodes, and can't take anymore, it's just bringing me down. I guess it depends on what you're looking for in a show. I do like the casting. I've seen a couple of the actors in other things, not their fault the script and direction is the way it is.

The book was funny.

The series is just grim. Green tinged lighting, everything seems bleak, not funny, no-one seems to have any empathy.

It's a world away from my experiences with the NHS.

Ben Whiteshaw gives another dead eyed, Charlotte Rampling style performance of miserable grimness. There is no light in his eyes, no sense of compassion or what is going on behind the mask. So you have little empathy for the main character, or in fact any of them which isn't the case with the book.

I felt depressed after watching it and trying to give it a chance after a couple of episodes, but I can't carry on. It's just too bleak. A horrible series.

Sorry for the pun but it is actually just the right type of show I need as tv is all the same these days.

I knew this was going to be funny and sad but I laughed more than I thougt I would and was adder as I cried with real feeling for Adam.

This means that Ben portrays him very well. Thank you fore eryone involved in bringing this to our screens.

I really needed a break from all those Grey's anatomy, Chicago med, and so on movies, full of brilliant doctors, funny, smart and very fresh after so many hours of work that I was tired (but not them), and still had plenty of time for various complex romances. I must confess that I envied their horse level hard work management.

Oh well, Adam is like us, and this is so refreshing!

Absolutely top shelf stuff. Very high production values all around. Keeps you guessing, keeps you hoping, makes you laugh, makes you cry. Great character development, super sharp dialogue. Imperfect humans struggling in an imperfect environment that ironically demands perfection. A real treat.

Reading many of the reviews I feel it's worth pointing out this is not a documentary ! It's a , generally, dark humoured drama. It superbly brings to the fore many NHS problems and the fallibility of even the best people there.

No major spoilers but some scenes could make you cry, then the next one has you chuckling away. Its good to see that many of the characters are a little more than one dimensional. The dawning realisation of what's going on in episode 6 is heart wrenching and for once , an apt statement by the producers .

This TV show is based on Adam Kay's book and speaks his truth about the experience of being a junior doctor in the National Health System in the UK. We see the lack of funding and resources, the tiredness and exhaustion among doctors and nurses, the burnout and catastrophic mental health consequences working in a broken system - not only for the frontline workers themselves, but their patients too.

The characters are faced with quick decisions on the spot, under pressure, lack of sleep, huge amount of expectations from colleagues and superiors. We also get a flavour (only a flavour) of the racism played out, the structural challenges in the system to call it out and the power imbalances between white people and people of the global majority. Racial abuse is an everyday phenomenon in the NHS - from patients, colleagues, superiors, and unfortunately the show doesn't even touch the level of its reality.

The series will be perceived differently by people in the UK who are familiar with the NHS, especially frontline health workers like myself. I felt angry and so disappointed with the system we work in. We are expected to work without appropriate support and supervision, burned out and often - like Adam - traumatised. Adam is going through a traumatic experience and there is no support for his mental health (or even acknowledged from his supervisors).

Ben Whishaw is outstanding in his performance, as the rest of the cast. It's definitely a show worth your attention!

Excellent cast and the writing is very good. Funny and also some very sad moments. It doesn't seem like Adam had a lot of guidance from the consultants, he too was learning and he in turn was teaching the SHOs. "See one, do one, teach one." Other TV series show the midwives delivering the babies and everything seems "perfect", they are well edited.

The scene in episode 4 when Adam's been called to A&E is very good, well acted by all. Breaking the 4th wall usually bothers me, like in the series "Annika", but it's appropriate in this series and works.

Not entirely sure what to make of this? The books are fantastic but this was rather dark in comparison. Was Adam really that rude to his patients? It was only 16 years ago! I've worked on labour ward myself for the last 12 and I'm fairly certain no Dr I've had the pleasure to work alongside has spoken that way. Perhaps it was what he was thinking as a opposed to actually doing? I was hoping for a funny adaptation to what we deal with daily, granted life is tough on the NHS front line, but we want more people to train and work with us, not scare them away!

Probably quite triggering for many and a lack of tact for those who have truly worked in those conditions and the trauma so many patients have gone through. It does nothing to address existing misogyny which we don't need shown as so acceptable as long as there's some humour. I don't recommend it.

I was sceptical going into this. I loved the book hugely and think I must have read it about four times at this point. The trailer didn't put me in super high hopes for it in all honesty and it took me a little bit to adjust to the format that the show was going for instead of the books.

I gave it a chance though and was massively rewarded. It captures the comedy and the tragedy of the book perfectly while also creating a wider cast of recurring characters to anchor the show to a single place. The supporting cast are really fantastic and in particular just watching them do their jobs is absolutely gripping and shows how much NHS workers go through on a day to day basis. Best of all though has got to be Ben Wishaw in the lead who absolutely captures the show . I really commend Adam Kay for not shying away from making himself look bad at certain points. He just feels so human.

There's a lot of surprising elements to the story that I really enjoyed particularly in the role that certain characters play. The fourth wall stuff is also really good in allowing the audience to relate to the action as we understand more about what are after all complicated medical procedures as well as Adam's thoughts.

Just fantastic. I'm tempted to start it all over again immediately.

"This is going to hurt" is a brilliantly written show with some amazing, down-to-earth acting performances that should be getting every award possible.

It's a brilliant critique of the hospital system in the UK, while also being a f***ing hilarious show. Especially the writing is what sets this show apart from others in the genre. The way it balances humor with tremendous tragedy is so beautifully heartbreaking that you never know wether to cry of laughter or sadness. The characters are all wonderfully horrible, but all with some redeeming qualities thanks to the way the show fleshes out their personalities.

I am familiar with Ben Wishaw only from his previous work in "Fargo." There he plays a very serious character, while in "This is Going to Hurt" he mixes it up with lively and sarcastic comedy and a bit of drama sprinkled in. He is a good actor with a lot of range. The other bonus for me is Harriet Walter who seems to be typecast in the unsympathetic mom role (see her in "Succession," "Ted Lasso," "Belgravia," "The Last Duel," "Killing Eve"), but that is okay because she is fascinating in everything she does. "This is Going to Hurt" is the best medical-theme show to come out in years. The last one I can think of is "Nurse Jackie." But this one is a bit different. It educates you on the state of universal healthcare in the UK - that it is not all that it is cracked up to be. On the side there is of course an undercurrent thread exploring various dysfunctional friend and family dynamics, while providing a brutal yet tongue-in-cheek depiction of the overworked lives of struggling NHS labor ward doctors. The writing and editing are top-notch; Ambika Mod as Dr. Shruti is a revelation and the highlight in the best episode; and the show also bravely features a cinematic trick rarely used (protagonist directly talking to the camera) and here it works.