Wednesday 9 February 2022

This is going to sound good

I watched the first episode of This Is Going To Hurt last night; it's based on Adam Kay's bestselling book, stars the always-excellent Ben Whishaw and details Kay's experiences as a junior doctor in the Obs and Gynae department of an acute hospital. Here's the trailer:

Now the book is excellent - funny, revealing and, in the end, heart-breaking. And Ben Whishaw has been excellent in A Very English Scandal, as Q in recent Bond movies and, of course, as the voice of Paddington. Everything looks set fair for this Beeb adaptation, in other words, and I'm pleased to report the first episode didn't disappoint.

I'm also pleased to report that, if the first hour is anything to go by, this series will have a cracking soundtrack. The headline-grabbing aspect of that is new music from one Jarvis Cocker, but the track that most caught my ear last night is this slice of late 60s stomp that I have somehow never heard before. So new to me was it that I first wondered whether it was a contemporary act doing a retro pastiche. But it's not - instead, it's Nobody But Me by The Human Beinz, from 1967/8, and it sounds like this:

Wikipedia tells me that The Human Beinz were a four-piece from Youngstown, Ohio, and that Nobody But Me was their only hit, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1968, six months after it was released. It also tells me that this song was used by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 but not included on the soundtrack, which might explain why I have no recollection of it.

Anyway, This Is Going To Hurt will be on again next Tuesday night at 9pm, and I recommend it highly. If you can't wait, you can already watch the whole series on iPlayer in one go, as seems to be the manner these days. But however you watch it, watch it.

2 comments:

  1. I've read his books and seen him on stage so was pleased to hear Adam Kay's first book was going to be dramatised. Ben Wishaw was very good in it and I enjoyed it as much as any female way beyond her child-bearing years could do. Had I been around 8 months pregnant right now, I would be getting very nervous.

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    1. Yes, it's not something you'd want to watch if you were expecting...

      Saw Adam Kay live at a festival a couple of years ago - he was very entertaining.

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