Check Up: Our NHS at 70

by Mark Thomas

Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the NHS, award-winning comedian and activist Mark Thomas takes a look at our NHS, what state it's in, where it's going, and what we need to do to keep it.

To create this show Mark Thomas conducted a series of public interviews with academics and practitioners, he spent a month in residency at the Imperial Healthcare Trust, and he spoke to a retired doctor about what could go wrong with his own health over the coming years.

The result is this funny, raw and angry show about a service created, in its founder's words "in place of fear", which is now threatened by lack of funding. Through the interviews and hospital scenes recreated in the show, we see a service held together by dedicated staff, crippled by government policy which has created an internal market and indebted by PFI contracts from which private companies have made millions.

This informative show toured venues throughout the UK in 2018, and is a strong wake-up call for those who want to see the NHS survive.

Genres: Humor

80 pages, Paperback

Published October 30, 2018

About the author

Mark Clifford Thomas (born 11 April 1963) is an English comedian, presenter, political activist and reporter from south London. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s. He is best known for political stunts on his show, The Mark Thomas Comedy Product on Channel 4. Thomas describes himself as a "libertarian anarchist."

Reviews

[Simon Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its been 70 years since the NHS came into existance and in this monologue Thomas seeks to look at what it was, is and may be if we care for it in the way it has cared for us.
Very remanisant in style to some of David Hare's plays such as The Power of Yes and the Permanent Way.
I so wish I'd had a chance to see it.

[David Campton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving, inspiring, infuriating and brutally honest look at the state of our beloved NHS. A really interesting way to explore a complex issue. Would love to have seen the show. Has given me a few ideas for the future...

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, This was always going to be five stars - I love Mark Thomas, I saw the show, and he signed this for me that night!