The Frank Skinner Show - There's a Doctor in the House

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

There's a doctor in the house! Comedian and writer Adam Kay joins Frank, Em and Ruth to delve into his brilliant book, A Particularly Nasty Case. They also discuss celebrity doctors and the time Harry... Hill helped Frank with an ailment. If you want to message the show, email us at FrankOffTheRadio@AvalonUK.com or WhatsApp us on 07457 417 769 We’re currently sponsored by BT - behind brilliant things! Search ‘Why BT’ to find out more or click on the following link: https://www.bt.com/broadband/why-bt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:29 It's Frank off the radio It's the Frankskinner podcast, don't you know Hey there, are you with the stars in your eyes? This is Frank off the right. Where's me laminate? Oh, sorry. Oh, gosh, I haven't got me laminate. It's the worst opening we've ever done to a show in history.
Starting point is 00:00:58 I see if I can remember it. Oh, no, I've got it. This is awful. I'm so sorry, Adam. It's all right. We've got a guest in. It's all. I don't want Polish nowadays.
Starting point is 00:01:07 Thank God for that. This is, oh sorry, I misread that. That was a text from a reform voter. I thought it said Polish. This is Frank off the radio. I'm joined by Emily Dean, Ruth Hossco and Adam Kaye, exclamation mark. Follow that, yes, we've got a guest. I know we never have a guest.
Starting point is 00:01:27 It's quite a posh guest as well. Yeah, well, we only have the, I mean, you've got to really go some to be a guest on this. Yeah. Follow the podcast on X and Instagram. you can email the podcast via Frank off the radio at Avalon UK.com On the WhatsApp front Now that Frank's not on the radio
Starting point is 00:01:44 Sorry about it. Scott, I always think Scott Walker. So do I. I hear that one. Beautiful. Shall we start by telling Adam? That was from Dr. Phil, coincidentally. Was it?
Starting point is 00:02:21 Oh, Dr. Phil? He's not a real doctor, Adam, we should say. How do we know that? Well Who are the other ones There's Dr. Dr. Drey Dr. Who?
Starting point is 00:02:30 Yeah. Dr. K. Dr. Brown Dr. Kildare. No, he wasn't. The actual doctor
Starting point is 00:02:39 That was quite crucial. That was a mission critical. Unless you know something. Unless there's some internet gossip. Sorry, Dr. Fox. Oh, yeah. Speaking of big scandals.
Starting point is 00:02:50 Frank, please. I didn't bring it up. Yeah, but just don't mention these things. What was the TV series when Jodie Whittaker played a nurse pretending to be a doctor? It was one of my favourite, that's my favourite subject matter ads, is people pretending to be doctors. Turns out very easy. It's like there's one of these stories like twice a week.
Starting point is 00:03:12 Is that your favourite medical theme? I absolutely love it. You couldn't watch it because Frank hates that tension of people being discovered or he hates people rife. I don't mind if it's a doctor groper. If they'll see those in the tabloids But once every two years Anyway
Starting point is 00:03:30 Look Adam, welcome to the show Adam, I'm so sorry Can we make it clear I'm not one of the doctor-goy No you're not one of the doctor-grove And also I did my degree I wasn't just one of the porters Who decided one day to nick someone else's badge
Starting point is 00:03:44 Now you are the real thing Can I'm going to read a text I never read text But this is a text from me To Adam Kay On the 20th of July of last year, Adam, it's a compulsive page turner, shot through with a brilliant stand-up comedy sensibility.
Starting point is 00:04:05 Surely that's the golden ticket. I go on, I generally find that reading, I probably shouldn't read this bit, I generally find that reading the first seven pages of a book is more than enough research for a usable quote. That's what I said to me. I actually kept going with this one. So that was it.
Starting point is 00:04:22 So that is the book that we're talking about today And it's Adam Kay. Now Adam Kay, Adam has gone it just over his shoulder. Like when Martin Lewis is on Sky News, he has his OBE on his book. He does. He honestly has... He has the box it comes in with the lid open and there's his OBE. So there's Adam's book.
Starting point is 00:04:46 You'll be able to see it online. But you think with an OBE is she can wear it at all times. Yeah. So he could be wandering around with it. Yeah, why doesn't he? Perhaps he thinks he'll alienate his. Have you got one of those? MBE, thanks God.
Starting point is 00:04:57 But I wouldn't. He probably for the same reason as me he doesn't want to alienate the impoverished. He's a lot more dependent on the impoverished than I am. I don't know. That's what draws him in. So anyway, all he does is points to Primark.
Starting point is 00:05:15 I mean, metaphorically, that's his job. Oh, my God. Can I also say, Frank, how much are. I loved this book because I was sent this book. I didn't get it last year when you did. Oh. I got over it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:29 I was second tier. If it makes you feel any better, that beautiful quote never made it to the press. Oh, good. I do feel better. So that's fair. But I got it this time round. Should it be nicer? No, yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:42 I realize my name doesn't sell. I've told people that. They said, can I have a quote for my book. I said, I had nothing. Who did they go? So, Dawn French. They went Dawn French. They went Dawn French.
Starting point is 00:05:54 Yeah. Okay, you're going to go Dawn French. It's not like old comedians were off the table. You know what I mean? Just the wrong one. Anyway. Anyway, when I got sent a copy of this book, we're good friends, full disclosure. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:09 Who? Me and Adam. Okay. You're aware of this. It's just if this is audio, that could have been. Okay, sorry, you're right. You're absolutely right. Everybody loves Ruth.
Starting point is 00:06:17 Everybody loves Ruth. That's my new sick. Come everybody loves me. I'm out of work at the minute, so yeah. Oh, I'm sorry to hear about. Anyway, can I tell you about it? Have you tried Martin Lewis? O-B-E.
Starting point is 00:06:31 O-B-E. Can I tell you what I thought when I got the book? I got it, and there's a part of me, and I know this is wrong, but I thought, oh, I hope this isn't too good. That will be really annoying. And I know that's mean, but you have sold over 5 million books.
Starting point is 00:06:48 Like, you've crossed over 5 million books. quite successful. It's getting like the Bible now. And then I read it and I felt exactly like you, Frank. I thought, oh, no, it's really good. It's really good. Because I don't normally, like with thrillers and things, what I couldn't believe about this is I was laughing all the time
Starting point is 00:07:05 and I was reading. It was so funny. And then I was really gripped and I thought, how has he done this? How has he done both things, damn it? How have you made it so? So I ask you now, I put it to you. You're going to ask?
Starting point is 00:07:18 I'm going to ask. Oh, there'll be people at home writing this down thinking. You know when you can get those out-of-writer mills and boon packs? How have you done it, please? So I did lots of post-it notes, because the thing with a thriller is you don't want to guess it to... Because there's two types of irritating thriller. There's the one where you guess it in page four,
Starting point is 00:07:47 and you're going to slog through 600 more pages of this. And then there's the one where you get it on the second last page when they tell you was the character you'd never met before, turning up with a shovel. Someone who walked past the window once, yeah. So there was lots of post-its involved. There's the Colombo method of tell them at the beginning. Yeah, exactly, save everyone a bit of time.
Starting point is 00:08:05 Which is very clever, I wrote. It does work. And then I make it funny by being innately hilarious in everything I say and do. Yes. So that does the second bit. And do you know from the start, We obviously, Frank and I both know who done it. You don't know, Ruth, do you?
Starting point is 00:08:23 I don't. Want to guess? Ruth is halfway through the audiobook. Yeah. So she's still on tenter hooks. Imagine if Adam tested her and said, which bit are you up to specifically now? Someone I know said tender hooks recently.
Starting point is 00:08:40 Did you correct them? No, I just won't ever call them again. Which we haven't said it's called a particular. nasty case, which is what the book is called. And the reason it's on, we're plugging it, it's already been a hit as a hardback and had great reviews. But being the Martin Lewis of podcasts, you need to sell to the paperback.
Starting point is 00:09:02 You brought it out as a paperback plebs, don't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's still such a thing as an airport edition. Oh, yes. Do you know that? Yeah, yeah. A halfway house between a paperback and a hardback. Yeah, so it's the hardback size.
Starting point is 00:09:18 but it's paperback. I think the theory was, if they sold hardbacks, you could possibly hijack a plane with the sharp corners. I think that was the theory. What I'd like is to go on with the hard back, and then when the stewardess came,
Starting point is 00:09:35 said, well, you might hang up my jacket and then give them the dust jacket, just for that one bit of levity on the... Because it's a nervous fly, isn't it? Well, let us know how it goes. Okay. I'll give it a try. But this is a paperback now.
Starting point is 00:09:49 And also an audio book, as Ruth will testify. Yeah. And I didn't record the audio book. It was Andy Circus. Yeah, I thought I'd take a chance on a new up-and-comer. Everyone needs a leg up in this industry, don't they? Given he can do every voice. And I can only do my voice.
Starting point is 00:10:07 You know, when they allow you to have someone like that, do they give you, is there like a booklet you look through for like rich, resonant, deep, North Country? Do you know, they give you options? So basically, I had an email. Email one said, we're very keen you don't do the audio book at them. They didn't say.
Starting point is 00:10:26 It was just that it was, they phrased it like, it's going to involve a lot of different voices. Accents. But the thing is, I'm really good accents. But the problem is they curdle a bit between my head and my mouth.
Starting point is 00:10:41 And they all sound quite bad according to other people. But I hear them really good. But they thought because of the audio book process, that wasn't necessarily going to work. You will know this. There must be some neurosurgical method that they could get them before they hit your mouth. Yeah, no, exactly. That's what they need to do.
Starting point is 00:11:00 Still pure and accurate. Exactly. Oh, actually, is it true? You know when people wake up and they change their accent? Does that really happen? You know, when people say he was in a coma when he worked up, he could speak Chinese? Is that medically possible? It is definitely possible.
Starting point is 00:11:16 If it happens to someone like four or five different times, they're probably having you on. So I did the audio books for my previous, like my non-fiction books and my kids' books and things. It turns out, so this is going to hurt, which is my first book, which is my diaries from a doctor, there's one really crucial word,
Starting point is 00:11:37 I can't say very well, which is, okay. Well, brace yourself. See if we recognize it. prescription oh no I didn't I didn't like that no
Starting point is 00:11:51 and so you know has anyone got a jackcloth I mean how long were you a doctor I could sort of skirt around
Starting point is 00:12:02 and then there was you know when you're recording the audio but there's a producer being like and again please and one more for safety and again please
Starting point is 00:12:08 and it was like using up five minutes every time and then I realized producer okay I can't believe discriminating against me
Starting point is 00:12:20 I know it's terrible and eventually I realised I'm not reading out like tell a two citizens I can just change the words It's my book So what did you do? So beyond like about a third of the way through
Starting point is 00:12:32 If you listen to the audit book It's me saying then And then I wrote out the name of the medicine On some paper Oh, excellent work But avoiding this Circus had a Well done, though.
Starting point is 00:12:45 My ego would never let anyone else read my book on an audio. I think that's true and I respect your honesty. Thank you. So obviously, we should say this central character, it's not giving it a way to say he's a doctor. He's a rheumatologist. Yeah. I always think of arthritis.
Starting point is 00:13:02 Yeah, you're right to. Oh, good. Absolutely what they do. I think I'd had enough of doctors being reflected in the media as the hot shableness. brain surgeon who can fly a helicopter and is good at martial arts. And so I wanted, you know, writing from a place of truth, I wanted the lead to be a doctor who was fine.
Starting point is 00:13:25 And so he's doing a boring, sorry, no offence, rheumatologist, boring specialty. And he's like totally adequate at his job. He's like good rapport, but he's never going to win any prizes. And so, yeah. You were a gynecologist, is that right? Yeah, obs and guine. He said labour ward.
Starting point is 00:13:43 Are you aware of the fact? You know the most famous photograph of the Lottnest Monster from the 1930s? Oh, yeah. When you can see it. Yeah, yeah. They call it the surgeon's photo. Why? Because it was taken by a surgeon.
Starting point is 00:13:57 But it wasn't. It was actually taken by a gynecologist. And that was sort of known by the press. But they thought... It's a type of surgery. Isn't that certain? No, but they thought we can't. You know, in the 1930s, we can't say he was a gynaecologist.
Starting point is 00:14:11 That's going to undermine the phone. the photo immediately. It was more undermined by the fact that it was nonsense. I don't know what was more embarrassing. I also think the Loch Ness Monsters people didn't want the gynecology association. We didn't want the lock, mess not less or either. But they always say the surgeon.
Starting point is 00:14:32 It's sort of because people were embarrassed about the title in the 1930s. So how happy that time has gone on with progress. Can I ask you something about the book? I once worked with Roddy Doyle. Oh, yeah. And he said to me, he said, when I never write any kind of plan or anything for a book, I just start writing the book.
Starting point is 00:14:57 I don't know what's going to happen or who's going to be in it, and I don't know how it's going to end. He said, although if I knew where it was going to end, I'd just get so bored. I'd lose interest. But a book like this one, that you couldn't possibly. take that approach. I mean, maybe he'd have sold more copies if he'd have planned them out in advance.
Starting point is 00:15:18 He did all right. He did all right. There's no $5 million though. Come on. You know when you read about who was the guy who did the D-thingy
Starting point is 00:15:31 do-door? That's a good question. You know that play with Tom Hanks and the French actress, the film, and it was based on the Da Vinci Code. Yeah, Dan Brown. Right.
Starting point is 00:15:44 Dan Brown apparently spent like years doing the plan. Him and his wife did the plan of the book. And as you say, the yellow stickies, I'm kind of fascinated by that aspect of. Because in a way, the book, as well as you say being funny and keeps you going, it's also a bit like doing a puzzle of some kind. It's definitely like doing a puzzle. And so I was quite reliant on it. So I'd had the twists quite early doors.
Starting point is 00:16:14 You knew what the twists were going to be. Which are great, by the way. And you sort of, you don't want them too high or low in the mix. And so the post-its used to be up in my office, and then we started renovating the house, and we moved somewhere where I didn't have an office. And so it was up in the living room. And so I had lots of post-its on the wall,
Starting point is 00:16:35 which would sort of said things like murder, exclamation mark. Your partner was panicking, like, is this book going to happen? He was fine. It was when guests came round and were having dinner and could just see them sort of looking up and write and wondering what was planned for the evening. Yeah. But they were most frightened of it being a murder mystery.
Starting point is 00:16:57 They would rather that their lives had been taken from that. Well, you're right. George, is it George R. Martin, calls it architects and gardeners with writers. He says you're either an architect or a gardener. So Roddy Doyle would be a gardener, Frank. Did he do that book? Architects and Gardners, always let me down. He didn't do that book.
Starting point is 00:17:19 Architects and Gardner, I don't seem to... So an architect, I assuming, from what Adam's answer is, then, you are very much more the architect. But I think with a book like this, you've got no choice. You couldn't improvise this, could you? I don't know. I certainly couldn't. But, I mean, every writer's different.
Starting point is 00:17:35 I think it's very... I don't know how helpful it is for prospective writers-giving. advice. Somerset Moorm, I know you quote Somerset Morm a lot on this show, said there are three golden rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
Starting point is 00:17:52 Do you know my dad insisted that his name was Somerset Matham. All right, yeah. Did he stick with it forever at that point? He did always. He would not let that go. He also's very insistent on antiquity instead of etiquette. Oh, I love that. Oh, that's good.
Starting point is 00:18:06 You could have those things in that space. It's adorable. Now, one thing I want to say about Adam is that I was in Edinburgh and my now wife and her sister were staying at this place and there was bed bugs, right? So my poor now sister-in-law was bitten to pieces and she said, I don't know what to do, it's driving me crazy. And someone said, Adam Kay, he's a doctor, isn't he?
Starting point is 00:18:34 I'm afraid it was me, Adam, I think. So we literally stopped. Adam on the stairs. I think it was at the pleasant. It was at the pleasant. And you took her, it took her into a corner somewhere. I think I'd like to take credit
Starting point is 00:18:48 for making the diagnosis of bedbugs. Oh, okay. And she said, what is this all over me? And I said, Madam, bedbugs. Stay in a less disgusting flat,
Starting point is 00:19:01 please. I like Madam, like Churchill's famous reports. You're right. You came up with the bedbugs term. He always comes up. Frank, mysterious rash, on the phone to Adam. He solved so many of my personal problems.
Starting point is 00:19:15 I would say, I've not worked as a doctor for 15 years. It's an increasing role of the dice asking me for any kind of medical advice. But this must have been like... That was near, I was only just out. Yeah, yeah. I once went in Edinburgh, I went to Harry Hill with a septic tongue. Because he was a doctor. He was a doctor for about 15 minutes.
Starting point is 00:19:38 Was he? Yeah, but he had. You know those doctors' bags, the leather bags? The Gladstone. Yeah, he had one of those with him, and he said, I always take this with me. So... Any amputated you're doing there, I mean? He dressed it.
Starting point is 00:19:52 Of course, being him, it was as a panda. No, he did. Yeah, he dealt with biceptych toes. Doesn't sound like he's qualified. So, yeah. And can I say Adam was proper, he was a surgeon, okay? Gynecology. But that is a surgeon.
Starting point is 00:20:09 Yeah, no, well, not if you ask Frank. No, it is. I'm just saying, I'm just trying to say, I mean... Do you in the other comic doctors? Do you hang out? Do you have like a WhatsApp group? Well, me and Graham Chapman. Well, there's Graham Chapman. There's Harry Hill.
Starting point is 00:20:24 There's Simon Brodkin. Mike Wozniak? Simon Brod King. Oh, is he a doctor? Yeah. That's quite a few we've got here. Paul Sinner. Why are you all comics then?
Starting point is 00:20:33 So, I think... What's the people say about that? I think. So basically, this isn't to be a doctor when you're 16, you know, choosing your A-levels and then... Your dad was a doctor, is that right? Yeah, exactly. So it was sort of in the blood. It was in the blood.
Starting point is 00:20:48 Also, I didn't have any better ideas, and he was paying for it. So I ended up being a doctor. And you're admitted on having lots of A's at A-level, which is, I don't know, the best doctors aren't the cleverest doctors. I'm not sure how good that is. But also, the other thing you need is loads of extracurricular... activities so you have to be captain of the lacrosse team or grade A, oboe, whatever it is.
Starting point is 00:21:13 And so there are all these people going to medical school with all these extra interests and then I think just a bunch of them after a while think, oh hang on I'm going back to the oboe. Well, because you also play the piano brilliantly as well. I mean, again decreasingly, brilliantly
Starting point is 00:21:31 as time goes by but yeah I went in on the basis of piano and saxophone. It's interesting. Interesting, because I know a man who is, was a GP, and who also played, he was the musical accompaniment. It's one I can't say. Prescription. Yeah, he played along with Lenny the Lion,
Starting point is 00:21:52 the famous ventriloquist act, and he was his pianist whilst still being a GP. Oh, wow. Well, it's good to have a portfolio career, isn't it? Exactly. What is that? It's when you do more than one. Oh, well, a multi-hyphen at Dr.
Starting point is 00:22:06 a hyphen, a liar accompanist. I would say with the thing about being a doctor, though, is it's like the mafia because you can't ever really leave. Once someone finds out you're a doctor, that's it. Yeah, but that's the downside. The plus side is you're always a doctor, you know, on your ID, so you're checking at the airline and say, by the way, I'm a doctor. Is there anywhere I could be upgraded to business class?
Starting point is 00:22:30 And they say, absolutely not. Really? Never happened once. Have you ever been on a plane or in a restaurant? Have you ever heard, is there a doctor on board? I've had a couple of, a couple of those. But interesting. So there was, in fact, the year, I think it was the year of the bed bug.
Starting point is 00:22:46 The Chinese year of the bed bug. I love that, Daniel DeVos. I was walking back to where I was staying, which was down Dundas Street on the big of, and there were various sort of shops, antiquey shops. And we're walking back, a few of us who were staying there. and couldn't help but notice someone lying on the ground bleeding to death. And he tried to smash a window to get some antiques, but had sort of misjudged how, I don't know,
Starting point is 00:23:18 the material properties of his flesh compared to the glass and ended up sort of bleeding out. And so there was lots of someone had to sacrifice their T-shirt to make a tourniquet and 9-9-9 and all that stuff. So, yeah, a bit of that. But I had this conversation about planes not long ago. So my family is lots and lots and lots of adopters. And my dad was saying that he'd been on a flight, a BA flight.
Starting point is 00:23:50 And they were asked, is there a doctor in a Bing-Bong? And the correct thing to do, obviously, is you don't answer first time. You wait for some other sucker to do it. But then it came out again as a doctor and then it was like, okay, fine. And they said, would you mind seeing this patient, Sean? So he went up and it was a patient with a slight rash. And it was like, okay, have you got any piraton? And they were like, yes, yes, doctor, we do.
Starting point is 00:24:16 So give the patient the piraton then. And then everything was fine. And that's an antihistamine. That's an antihistamine. Oh, he's so good at that. And then, so he gets a letter afterwards saying you can have two free business class fights anywhere in the world. for saving the day on the flight by knowing the name Piraton. That's worth it.
Starting point is 00:24:39 I mean, I could have had the same. You could have been yours. I thought you were going to say he went up and the person was dead and they'd say, funny, you'd answer the first time we said it. And then another person around the dinner table pipes up and said, I did CPR for an hour and a half whilst they diverted a plane on the world's not-favor airline, a sort of a cheaper airline, whilst they got to divert the pain to an airport,
Starting point is 00:25:09 and they didn't even say thank you. So if you're going to be on a plane with an emergency, make sure you pay the extra. Yeah, exactly. Don't help anyone in standard. There's no room. When you're a mid-sized business, you need every competitive advantage you can get.
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Starting point is 00:25:59 That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca.cair, every style, every home. Ruth, have you got anything you want to ask Adam? Only that at the start of the book you say that it's not based on anyone in real life.
Starting point is 00:26:19 Do you want to name some people publicly who are a character that based on? Just get them all at like Lansing. Come on. Before they read it and... So basically, I can't be the only person who sat in medical school in these lectures every so often thinking,
Starting point is 00:26:36 oh, that'd be a good way to kill someone. And then obviously, by the next. nature of the job, you then have to, you know, the rules state, you don't do that. But, and I've previously only written non-fiction. So I haven't killed anyone in real life. But this is a very good opportunity to, to murder thinly veiled versions of my actual enemies. I thought that was the case.
Starting point is 00:27:02 Yeah, that's why I'm asking. And in fact, one of them, one of the murderees, I forgot to change. to change their name until about 48 hours before they did control P print on the actual print run. And I woke up in a sweat, a bit of shit, and he should probably change that one. So that was quite a close call legally. Yeah, that's the danger when you're proofing. What about your live career? Is that still a big thing for you?
Starting point is 00:27:34 Or are you going to steadily retire into a study at the top of the garden, like roll? But less like Roald Dahl. I was going to say, let's not talk about Roll Dahl. Sorry, I picked the wrong one. Well, you're going to say, like Jimmy Saville. Not that he's like Jimmy Saville, but you know what I mean. Okay, let's not have any more simileys on people.
Starting point is 00:27:59 I like performing, but I also like staying in my house and having, like, dinner and seeing my children and stuff like that. So I'm performing less, but, so like I'm going to Australia at the end of the year and doing a bit of that. Yeah, very fancy. And also, next year is 10 years since this is going to hurt. It's not. I know.
Starting point is 00:28:24 So March of time continues. So I'm, so I think I might sort of wheel that out. I'll see what I was thinking, Adam. I'm always, I'm always looking for a good tour name. And I think sometimes, you know how some TV shows, only happen. because there was a good pawn. Like Dale Winton got a chat show just because someone came up with Winton's Wonderland.
Starting point is 00:28:47 That was the only reason he got that. What was your favourite, Frank? It was Only Falls on Horses. I don't remember that was a comic relief thing. And you said at the time, it's so obvious. And then they decided, let's teach celebrities to ride because we've come up with this idea of this name. But that's fine.
Starting point is 00:29:05 But Adam, you're 45 at the moment. Correct. And I thought in two years' time, you could do a tour called AK-47. I mean, it's begging for it. It's begging for it. Yeah. I might be a bit of an issue in some states of America. But absolutely fine in the rest of them.
Starting point is 00:29:26 You can have a. You can have a Kalashnikov in America, surely. Trump will be saying nice things. But it's a great title, isn't it? Yeah, done. What percentage are you taking for that? No, no, it's yours. I'm happy to gift it to you.
Starting point is 00:29:41 Very much. Can I tell you something else I love about this book? I genuinely do love this book. And I know it's so... You shouldn't have said the bit... Cut the bit of the start. We say we're good friends. Because it's really undermining a lot of this positivity, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:29:55 But you know what it's like, when you've had it, when a friend sends you a book or you get sent the book by the PR, and you're just willing it to be good, aren't you? You did say you were willing mine to be bad. I was willing it to be bad in your case because you've had your success. Okay, so I've had enough. I've been to your house. I don't want you to have any more money.
Starting point is 00:30:11 But I did get that sense of, with this, I think what I liked about it, you were talking about that honesty, and I don't know if this is a peculiarly sort of medic thing or doctor thing. And I think comics and doctors maybe have this in common. It is a slight inability to lie. It's a truthfulness. He's a bit like you like that.
Starting point is 00:30:28 And I love that about your book, that it was so authentic. And I thought doctors have to lie as part of their thing. Maybe I've got that wrong. I see them as people who come to the point a bit more. I think you're encouraged not to lie. No, but I mean you're prevaricate, don't you? You don't say
Starting point is 00:30:45 to be honest. Don't say guess who's dead. You don't say, you try and break news the right way. Yeah, you don't buy a new suit. But you make a point in the book, which I'm like, you were saying, like if you're telling someone they've got a term of illness or something, it's so much better to kind of rip the band-aid off and just say, right, I'm afraid it's bad news. I think it's the very old sort of patrician version of medicine
Starting point is 00:31:05 where you sort of talk about a slight shadow. on the x-ray. I think, yeah, I think you should be a bit direct about it. Well, you are direct,
Starting point is 00:31:15 what I also like is that there's no tweet, oh dear, the bell ringer's dead. Because you dump us straight into a gay sauna. And I like being
Starting point is 00:31:22 pumped into a gay sauna. It's worth saying it's not cozy crime. It's whatever the opposite of, itchy crime. It's not.
Starting point is 00:31:32 It's not. Because, yeah, it does, there's no way of getting around. It does, it does, starting a gay sauna. But that sort of gets rid of the people
Starting point is 00:31:43 who aren't going to enjoy the rest of it. Yes. That's a good way of looking at it. Of course, I sort of worked for you, Adam, come to think of it, because you edited a big book called the NHS. Oh, is that right? I've got a letter.
Starting point is 00:31:59 I think they've got a letter from you or it claimed to be from me. It was during COVID. I had time to do that. And it was like, will you write a story for the collection. So, yeah. No, that was really lovely.
Starting point is 00:32:12 So we wrote to it was called 100 letters. It was a literary version of the Thursday at hand clap. Remember when everyone used to go on the doorstep
Starting point is 00:32:24 and clap? I went to Adamson clap. Yeah, no, thank you and you still do. So it was thanks to you, I'm going to say entirely thanks to you. So it raised about 600 grand for NHS charity.
Starting point is 00:32:37 So it was a nice sort of COVID thing. So, but yeah, it was a hundred, well, I wrote to the hundred most famous people I could think of. And they, because it was COVID, everyone said yes. Like Paul McCartney was like, yeah, sure, why not? I remember in the corner of my letter it said 98. Crucially, where was David Badell?
Starting point is 00:33:03 And I've only just worked that out. Imagine if David Badele was 97. That was a gold. I mean, I know it was like the worst time for the NHS, but as Charles Dickens said, it was the worst of times, it was the best of times, because never did people express their love and admiration more than in that period.
Starting point is 00:33:20 Yeah, it's just a shame they forgot about it fairly soon afterwards. Yes, well, I always think of the 2012 opening ceremony thing where the NHS is in that. That's how I think most people see the NHS in that very romantic, heroic, Why, which is a beautiful thing. And you know what? I will say, and this probably doesn't show me in a good light, but if I do have to go in to see a GP or hospital, I do drop your name.
Starting point is 00:33:48 I know it's wrong. I shouldn't do that. Does it work that? Yes, it does. It did wonders. I should try doing that. I know it's wrong, Frank, but contacts is everything. And I have dropped it in.
Starting point is 00:33:59 Just casually, I really got absolutely five-star treatment for my colonoscopy. But how do you drop it in, though? I just do it like this. I'm very good at it. I'm very good at it. I just say, yeah, well, I was saying to my friend Adam, I don't know Adam actually. He's some, he used to be a doctorate, but I don't have you heard of it, as if they're not going to know it. Called, this is going to hurt. And then I wait, mic drop. It's awful. It shows me in a terrible light.
Starting point is 00:34:25 And then we're like, Madam, we will use the thinner camera, or the thicker camera, whichever. Do you know what? So they have adjustable lenses. I don't have it bigger. Yeah, well, I was on Luft Danzae, and I dropped Adam's dad's name and got two businesses like to everyone. So, look, let us not go without, again saying that the book is called a particularly nasty case. Or nasty for our southern listeners.
Starting point is 00:35:00 No, no. If it was called nasty, I wouldn't be blogging it, frankly. particularly nasty case by Adam Carr. Not by Alan Carr. Oh, nasty. Oh, horrible murder. So, um... I love your Alan Carr, I'm going to say.
Starting point is 00:35:29 Dr. Carr. Dr. Carr will see you now. Hello, Dr. Carr. Can you help me? Anyway, Adam talks about he helps someone with a slight rash. I don't know that was his dad as well So look, it's, yes So it is, I know people say this anyway
Starting point is 00:35:48 But I don't really read sort of thrillers, detective things But it did keep me, I did want to know What was going to happen It's absolutely brilliant, and it's cool. Thank you. I think Ruth might actually finish the audio book. No. I will, yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:02 That's my theory. I've been listening to it constantly, so I'm on 10. And at the end, it says, Thanks for listening, my precious. Get off me. So, so, so,
Starting point is 00:36:16 thank you, Adam. Good luck with the book. We've already had good lot with the book, but good luck with the paperbacks. Paperbacks are better
Starting point is 00:36:23 as they come in your pocket. It hurts less when you're reading in bed and it falls on your hands. Oh, yeah. And just lighter. I think that's our big marketing campaign for it.
Starting point is 00:36:32 Yeah. I mean, they work better as a tray, the hardback. I'd say that's their one big selling point. Yeah, and props up.
Starting point is 00:36:39 better on a podcast. I found at Christmas when I had several different presents, I would, I would use as a foundation, a hardback to carry them around the house. What a ridiculous thing to say. Give me a paper. You know, there's now, if the Beatles had written hardback writer, that would have been rubbish. Some are more glamorous about a paperback. I agree. So good luck with the paperback, Adam, and you don't need it, but I'm going to say it anyway. Thank you very much for coming on. If I genuinely didn't need it, I'd have said no to coming on here. So I do need it to a certain extent. You'd have said no.
Starting point is 00:37:14 I thought it was me who had the choice. Anyway. That's my last time on here, isn't it? Anyway, it's been fun. So the next episode, I'm going to have to do some. Oh, yeah, he's got to do business. Housekeeping. Talk a monkey.
Starting point is 00:37:30 Don't talk about it. No. The next episode of Frank Skinner's Radio Days is out on Wednesday, and we're discussing the Winter Olympics TV bedroom scenes. and our first live Google search. Can't wait. It's the Frank Skinner podcast. A new winter change is blowing.
Starting point is 00:37:55 It's the Frank Skinner podcast. I'm not totally sure how it's going. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Make sure to like and follow so you never miss an episode. And if you want to get in touch, you can email the podcast via Frank off the radio at Avalonuk.com.

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