‘We would discuss how dislikable I was’ – what’s it like to see your life story on TV?
Telling your story in a book is hard enough. But what if it ends up on screen? Adam Kay, writer of This Is Going to Hurt, and Dolly Alderton, who penned Everything I Know About Love, relive the shocks
Most people find seeing themselves on screen distinctly squirm-inducing. Even an unintended glance in the mirror can trigger a minor identity crisis, as we glimpse the gulf between how others see us and how we imagine ourselves. But for writers whose life stories are adapted for television - their flawed personalities painstakingly recreated by actors - the experience can be even more bewildering.
Bizarre is the only way to describe it," reflects Adam Kay, whose 2017 bestseller This Is Going to Hurt, a memoir of his hellish and hilarious years as a junior doctor, lands in 2022 on BBC One. On TV, Kay is played by Ben Whishaw, who evidently took his research seriously. I watched an early cut with my husband," Kay recalls, and he said: It's amazing how he's got all of your weird mannerisms.' I didn't even realise I had weird mannerisms!"
Continue reading...