British Comedy Guide

'Mary Bourke: Who Cares?' coming to Radio 4 next year

ExclusiveFriday 29th November 2024, 8:30am by Jay Richardson

Mary Bourke
  • In her debut Radio 4 series, Mary Bourke investigates the social care system and opens up about caring for her husband, the comedian Simon Clayton, who suffered a stroke in 2020
  • Bourke also speaks to comedians Josephine Lacey, Pope Lonergan and Michael Akadiri about their experience of the embattled and underfunded care sector
  • She said: "I wanted to do a show that was pitched at carers and their experience. Because there's nothing in the media about them. They're a silent group that no-one pays any attention to"

Mary Bourke has landed her first Radio 4 series, about her experience of being a carer, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.

In Mary Bourke: Who Cares?, the Buckinghamshire-based Irish comic performs stand-up about caring for her husband, the comedian Simon Clayton, who suffered a stroke in 2020 during lockdown, and investigates the social care system, interviewing fellow acts Josephine Lacey, Pope Lonergan and Michael Akadiri about their experience of the embattled and underfunded sector.

Bourke wanted to make the five 15-minute episodes because "people never talk to carers" she told British Comedy Guide. "People would always ask how Simon was but would never ask how I was doing. I wanted to do a show that was pitched at carers and their experience. Because there's nothing in the media about them. They're a silent group that no-one pays any attention to."

Recording at The Backyard Comedy Club in London on 13th January, the series is currently slated to air across five days in late spring, early summer, in a morning slot after the news on Radio 4, in a week devoted to caring.

Bourke, who has performed material about Clayton's hospitalisation and their lives since in her last three Edinburgh Fringe shows, argued that "it's good that attention is finally being given to carers because they save the government so much money. But as someone who has been through the system, there is zero respect given to them, none."

Lacey, who brought her critically acclaimed show Autism Mama, about coping with her autistic teenage son's burgeoning sexuality, to Edinburgh and the Soho Theatre in London, was "an amazing interview" Bourke recalls. Meanwhile, Lonergan, who wrote the 2022 memoir I'll Die After Bingo about his decade working in social care with the elderly, has been adapting his book for television.

Mary Bourke

Bourke also spoke to stand-up and doctor Akadiri about his experience on hospital wards, as "one thing that struck me when I was in the ICU with Simon was the lack of communication between the hospital and the patient's family".

She hopes that Who Cares? will make carers feel "like they've been seen. I've tried to make it as funny and authentic as I possibly can."

The series also touches on the taboo aspects of caring, "sex, toilets and thoughts of murder", because "I didn't want it to portray some sort of saintly, stoic woman who's bravely battling on, because that's not me.

"And I wanted to talk freely, especially when I talk to women, about the emotional labour and burnout you have when you're a carer, having to manage someone else's emotions as well."

Juggling the demands of caring for her husband and maintaining her stand-up career was "very difficult in the beginning" Bourke reflects. "It took me a long time to process and be able to make jokes about it because audiences always know if you're too upset or you're too into something, they back away.

"It took me time to get used to it, to be at peace with the fact that our lives had changed forever. I thought we were going in one direction and now that's completely gone forever."

Some parts of the series are explicitly political, with "a whole bit about how you never meet the same social worker twice" she explains. "I used to wonder why no-one ever read anybody's else's notes, I found myself constantly repeating the same information over and over again.

"And then a carer of 30, 40 years suggested to me that the reason that you never see the same social worker is that they don't want to build a relationship with you. Because it's easier then to cut your budget. These are difficult times and the budget is always a big focus."

Mary Bourke: Who Cares? is made by Jon Holmes' Unusual Productions, which previously produced the free speech comedy series Unsafe Space for Radio 4, recorded at The Backyard, featuring Bourke, as well as Andrew Doyle, Tony Law, Leo Kearse, Freddy Quinne, Jake Yapp and Nick Dixon among others.

Free tickets for the Who Cares? recording are available via SRO Audiences

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