Ben Whishaw is seemingly always GOOD: first he’s a Good Doctor and now he’s a Good Boy (plus soooo much more)

This Is Going to Hurt is a dramatic and darkly comedic look at the UK healthcare system.  (Gay heartthrob) Ben Whishaw plays Adam Kay, the real-life former doctor who wrote the TV series, and the book that it’s based on. The story follows Adam’s time as a junior doctor in the obstetrics and gynecology ward at an NHS hospital, exploring the emotional toll this high-stress environment takes on doctors. It is not just a portrait of doctors for the sake of gaining sympathy, but it’s a desperate plea for help to try and change the NHS system for the better, at a time when governments across the globe are perpetually talking about budget cuts to healthcare.

While some of the specifics may have been altered for the show, the level of stress in the hospital, the amount of blood in an operating room, the bureaucracy of the NHS, and the way the system is outdated and understaffed, are all based on reality.  These are the most important true aspects of the story and paint the picture of the pressures of working for the NHS from all angles. Things that happen to Adam and his colleagues are based on things that these doctors are experiencing in real life. “What I wanted, which thankfully happened, was the people who work in hospitals that say ‘yeah, it’s like that,’” says Kay.

 

The seven-part series premiered on BBC One and BBC iPlayer  and then on AMC+ in the United States 

 

 

Elsewhere in GOOD BOY  a short comedy drama film fom 2023 Whishaw plays Danny who’s attempt to rob a bank with his overbearing mum (Marion Bailey) is scuppered by the appearance of their family doctor. With his mum in the back of his van, and a dead pigeon on the passenger seat, Danny has a growing sense of desperation. But as more and more figures arrive to disrupt his day, we begin to sense that everything is not as it seems…  Directing debut of actor Tom Stuart, this 16 min film was shortlisted for Best Live Action Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

 

Good Boy is streaming on https://www.disneyplus.com/

 

 

PS If you cannot get enough of Whishaw (and who can?) he’s currently starring in the Brit TV series on Netflix BLACK DOVES; and is also in the new PADDINGTON BEAR Goes To Peru film that is just hitting movie theaters. PLUS he stars in Ira Sachs highly anticipated film about one of the greatest queer artists of his generation who died of AIDS in 1987 : PETER HUJAR’s DAY is just about to have its World Premiere at Sundance