Abhiroop Das
In Adam Kay’s ‘This is Going to Hurt,’ which is an adaptation of his eponymous memoir, Adam Kay’s life as a doctor takes center stage in the narrative. Whether it is the stream of challenging cases or the chaos of hospital politics and back-breaking working conditions, Adam is hardly able to catch a break, and that has a trickle-down effect on his personal life. In particular, his relationship with his romantic partner, Harry, is put to the test, and each episode presents its own set of obstacles that the pair has to overcome. Over time, however, the dynamic threatens to lose stability, and this in turn pushes both Harry and Adam to look inwards and find out where their true priorities lie. While this medical drama series is primarily centered around capturing snapshots from Adam’s experiences in the hospital, his life outside of work helps contextualize his character arc. To that end, Harry serves as the emotional pulse of the narrative.
Harry is a Fictionalized Recreation of Adam Kay’s Partner From His Time as a Doctor
Harry Muir is a fictional character constructed by Adam Kay for the television adaptation of ‘This is Going to Hurt.’ While Harry loosely resembles Adam’s real-life partner during the timeframe he wrote the memoir, the television iteration is infused with invented details, which were added in large part to flesh out the narrative with well-realized supporting characters. Adam explained his creative process in an interview with the BBC, where he confirmed that Harry is among the figures he created as a show-only element. However, he continued by saying that most of the show is still closely modeled after his 2017 memoir, particularly zooming in on certain portions of the written account. This means that several characteristics of Harry can potentially be traced back to his book counterpart.
Notably, in the source material of ‘This is Going to Hurt,’ Adam’s partner is consistently referred to with the initial “H,” and finds mention within the first diary entry itself. While the entries range from 2004 to 2010, the show itself is set in 2006, making it probable that the entries from that specific period laid the foundation for the television narrative. However, within the entries from that timeframe, his partner, H, is never brought up. This further indicates that Harry’s entire story in the show was made from scratch, with Adam’s real-life relationship likely serving as a superficial reference point. As the original memoir is largely centered around his lived experiences, Adam chose not to add too much detail to his rendition of the people he interacted with, as that gave him more flexibility as a writer. For the show, on the other hand, creating an elaborate arc for the characters was crucial, and Adam felt the need to be more inventive in his approach, resulting in the creation of figures such as Harry.
Actor Rory Fleck Byrne’s Take on Harry Adds to the Show’s Emotional Range and Depth
Given that Harry is a character designed for the screen, how he is portrayed is instrumental to his believability factor. Actor Rory Fleck Byrne adopted a unique approach in bringing Harry to life, which involved consciously not depending on the source material. “I didn’t want to read it in case I got kind of distorted by it,” he told BBC, before adding, “I tend to kind of lean away from doing that stuff when preparing.” Instead, the actor’s performance was based on his own understanding of the character, following detailed conversations with Adam about who Harry is and what he represents in the larger framework of the show. Byrne, who is known for his work in popular titles such as ‘The Newsreader’ and ‘Dope Girls’, used his skills as a creative artist to authentically render an outsider’s perspective into the world of healthcare professionals, especially how romantic relationships can be affected by it.
For Byrne, portraying Harry’s complex relationship with Adam was an acting highlight in and of itself, and much of that had to do with the show’s sensitive handling of the subject of work-life balance. Additionally, the actor spoke to Memorable TV about how the show focuses on the finer edges of the relationship, stating, “Something that initially attracted me to the project was to get to play a same-sex partnership in a TV programme that it wasn’t about them being gay. That’s something that I’ve been very passionate about my whole career, and finally, I’ve found something where that happened.” To that end, his understanding of the dynamic in all of its highs and lows was formative to the nuanced depiction of a gay relationship on screen. While Harry may be a fictional take on Adam’s real-life partner, the creative team of ‘This is Going to Hurt’ ensured that his character was believable and compelling in his own right.
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