This is Going to Hurt: Sheffield's unlikely links with the hit BBC show

This is Going to Hurt is a screen adaptation of the book by the same name, which chronicles Adam’s life working as an acting consultant on a gynaecology and obstetrics ward.

The award-winning book has sold more than 2.5 million copies to date and has been translated into 37 languages, as readers enjoy ‘laugh-out-loud highs’ and ‘gut-wrenching lows’ while reading about his time in the NHS.

The TV adaptation, which stars Ben Whishaw, has now been watched by millions of people since the show was launched on the BBC earlier this month.

But did you know the series has a number of little known links to Sheffield? Here’s what we know.

Jarvis Cocker wrote the theme tune

Jarvis Cocker – the famed frontman of Sheffield band Pulp – wrote the theme tune.

Released through his current band JARV IS, the song takes it’s name from the title of the show and is also called ‘This Is Going To Hurt’.

You can listen to the song on the BBC Sounds playlist here:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0014n90

Scenes from the show were filmed in Sheffield

Eagle-eyed viewers have spotted an iconic Sheffield site in the new drama.

Ben Whishaw, starring as Adam Kay, encounters a woman going into labour in the first scene of episode one.

Adam helps the woman, takes her into the hospital and walks her to a lift – when the Sheffield landmark appears.

Adam and his patient enter the paternoster lift which is located in the University of Sheffield Arts Tower.

It is one of only two paternosters (continuously moving open lifts made of several compartments) in the UK, the other being in a London hospital.

The paternoster serves all 22 stories of the Arts Tower, which is the tallest academic building in the UK.

Adam comforts his patient whilst they are in the lift but when it comes time to step off onto their floor, she hesitates, worried about stumbling because the paternoster does not permanently stop.

As the lift continues its journey, Adam realises that the woman has suffered a cord prolapse and will need urgent medical attention.

When the lift returns to the right floor, the patient again hesitates and Adam pushes her out of the lift.

The paternoster only makes a brief appearance in the show’s pilot, but many viewers spotted the lift that has become a rite of passage for students across Sheffield.

In an online forum discussing the show, one person wrote: “I didn't know that any paternoster lifts still existed because I would have thought that health and safety would have banned them by now. I remember being shown the lift when I went for an interview at Sheffield University in the 1960s (they seemed quite proud of it).”

Adam Kay has performed the stage version of the book in the city

Adam Kay appeared at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre to discuss his best selling book during a performance just before the pandemic hit in February 2020.

He returned to Sheffield last year for Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas Live at the City hall in December.

Adam won rave reviews for sharing entries from his festive diaries, alongside original stand-up and Christmas songs.

During the pandemic, Adam applied to return to work on the wards himself and organised and edited Dear NHS, an anthology of other celebrities’ love letters to the NHS, which was an instant Sunday Times number one and raised £425,000 for related charities.