Ed Patrick: Comedian, Author & NHS Anaesthetist Talks Sleep, Surgery & Stand-Up

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, Screen Rats, and welcome to another episode of Television Times podcast.

And it's the new year, it's 2025.

We are now officially, because it's about a week into January, we are closer to the year 2050 than we are to the year 2000.

How scary is that?

Now with the new year upon us, I'm making a few changes, the obvious ones that everyone tries to do.

You know, I haven't drunk any alcohol for a week after that Christmas period.

Not that I drank loads, but I did drink regularly to a point where I thought, yeah, I'm a bit bored with this.

Now, I'm not making any grand plans or proclamations, but I haven't wanted any for a while.

I really need a good, good break.

But the most important changes I'm making are online, to do with like social media and stuff like that.

I didn't leave Twitter when everyone else did.

I did set up Blue Sky and I was an early adoptee of Twitter and Facebook and all these things.

I mean, back in the day, I had music on MySpace and I was on Bebo.

Bebo, was it called?

And I remember going on the original list to sort of get the Facebook account back in 2004.

I opened Twitter in 2006-7 and I didn't really know what it was at first.

I didn't really use it.

So, yeah, I closed all that down last week and it wasn't even for the political reasons.

It's just too much noise, too much negative information.

In fact, it was to do with something nasty that happened on New Year's Day in America.

Immediately on Twitter, there was just like graphic imagery that you wouldn't get anywhere else.

And I was like, yeah, I don't want to wake up and see that anymore.

It's not that I'm turning off the news, I'm just turning off that particular channel of information.

And, you know, I'll be honest, blue sky seems like a MySpace thing.

You know, you just get all these followers, you don't know who they are.

I don't know if it's going to do anything.

And it's another echo chamber of liberal people.

So, again, a little bit boring.

You know, I've also closed down the threads account and Reddit pages and, you know, just to see what works and what doesn't.

So we'll see how that all pans out.

And most of this is just through boredom, through complete boredom of social media.

Although I have had a sort of turnaround in my brain because it does anger me that I have to do all this stuff and I don't like TikTok and all this shit.

But, you know, what's the worst thing in the world?

Having to do some videos or something and making little bits online to get people to listen to your content?

I guess you have to do that.

It's not the worst thing in the world, is it?

You know, you're not down a pit, you know, it's easy stuff.

So, you know, I can just shut the fuck up and get on with it.

So anyway, let's get on to our guest.

Today's guest is Ed Patrick.

He's a comedian and he's also, and let's try to say the word, anesthetist.

Have I said it right?

I don't think I have.

I probably haven't.

Now, I don't know Ed, so this conversation was completely like, you know, two strangers talking.

It's not a long one.

There was a little glitch on his end that I didn't notice until afterwards, this little sort of popping sound.

So, I haven't like made this one particularly radio friendly, you know, I haven't like enhanced all the voices, otherwise you're just going to get a lot of plosive noises.

I will be working on eradicating any kind of audio problems going forward from now, but this will be the last one that has any of that.

Regardless, we still had a good little chat, mostly about traitors and Have I Got News For You, which he was recently on.

So, anyway, let's get into it.

This is me talking to the comedian, Ed Patrick.

It's Ed, Ed, Ed, Ed, Ed, Patrick.

Roll up, roll up and welcome to another edition of Television Times with your host, me, Steve Otis Gunn, where I'll be talking to someone you do know or someone you don't.

It might be funny, but it might not be, but it's always worth tuning in for.

So here we go with another episode of Television Times.

So how are you?

Nice to meet you, by the way.

Yes, good, thank you.

You too.

I'm just going through your Instagram.

I just saw the image of your Have I Got News For You kind of, I guess it's your name on the door, is it?

Yes, that's right, it looks cooler in real life.

For some reason, there's an auto brightness when you take a photo of it, because it's a screen, it's not like a plaque.

When you see it there, it's really bright.

When you take it there, it auto brightnesses it down.

You're like, no, I want this to be as bright as possible.

Yeah, how was that?

That must have been pretty amazing.

I mean, you say it's a very cool experience, but growing up, I'm assuming you watched that your whole life like I have, to be sitting there, is it surreal?

It's surreal beforehand and after hand, because it really is a cross-generational show.

So if you were to go up to someone in the street and say, do you know this TV show?

There's a high probability that people of vast range of experiences and ages would say, yes, I do.

And that really struck me when I was about to be on it afterwards as well.

But just what a great opportunity as well.

Yeah, so I just really, really enjoyed it.

It's a lot of fun.

Have you seen the there's an American remake again, and it's actually on the iPlayer.

I've been trying to watch a couple of those, and I mean trying.

Oh, really?

No, I haven't seen them.

I know that they, I saw that the host is coming over to host one of the British versions.

Oh, really?

So there's a crossover.

Yes, I haven't seen it.

How is it compared?

What does it do differently?

It just seems to have, I mean, in my opinion, I don't know if it's true, but it seems to be a laughter track and it's overly, there's too many shoehorned in jokes in a sort of non-natural way.

Whereas sometimes, when you're watching our version, there are some dad jokes and some real not funny stuff, but people laugh at it.

But this is properly like, oh my God, that's so funny, but it's not that funny.

And if they've got two regular panelists like Ian and Paul, or is it?

Yeah, they have.

It's all right.

It's fine.

It's just not the same show at all.

Well, I guess it's like when we try to do Saturday Night Live and it doesn't quite come up, but it's probably the same sort of...

I don't know if we've tried to really.

I think there's been a couple of attempts, hasn't there, to do it?

Yeah, there was a Friday Night Live with Ben Elton in the 80s, and then there was like attempts to do things like that.

But it doesn't really cross over.

In the same way panel shows generally don't do very well in America.

You know, it's that kind of...

Interesting, yeah.

It's interesting.

But I do enjoy the terrible props.

How are they in the studio?

Sort of hitting a hammer on a solid piece of wood that doesn't move and things like that.

Oh, there were no props when I was there.

No, I just had a button to press.

That was it.

It's a real button?

It's a real button, yeah.

But it's not sort of a sexy button.

It's just literally just one of those buttons that you say, if you want to release the door, press this button sort of thing.

Oh, right, really?

So I couldn't come and see your show in Edinburgh because I was doing my own one.

I'm just looking at my poster, which I never want to see again.

You ever want to see your posters ripped up?

Have you ever ripped up your own posters?

It's quite satisfying once it's over.

Oh, for Edinburgh?

Yeah.

Well, I keep one or two, but for the last couple of times, they've all gone straight to the stand.

So they've got them all.

So I'm assuming that they've kept them.

They would never throw my posters away.

I'm sure.

No, of course not.

Just store them in the corner somewhere, yeah.

But I actually haven't had to throw any away recently in the last couple of years.

That's nice.

Then also the poster has translated into the tour anyway, so the image is still part of it.

But I can imagine the catharsis of having to tear one up though.

When my show ended, it was a bit of a non-event in that I didn't have anyone to go and have a beer with or anything like that, so it just ended and I was just outside with a suitcase full of props essentially and looking for bins to drop the stuff in that I wasn't going to use again and what I should keep and then put it all in a bag and get on the night bus.

It does sound like the start to the Joker movie or something.

Yeah.

I've had a few doctors on the pod.

There's a lot of you.

What's always impressive is when you come up with a title that is kind of medicinal, is that how you say it for your tour and your book that has not been used because that must be quite difficult.

I think there's a few of us, but I think there's such a plethora of things you could do in different ways that actually we haven't exhausted that yet.

So what we need is more doctors and more nurses and medical staff to come into comedy and start using up the waiting list of all these potential puns that could be used for titles.

Lawyers, doctors and teachers, isn't it?

That's what I've worked out.

Lawyers, I don't know many lawyers.

I think Susan Coleman was a solicitor, maybe.

It might be just an Australian thing, but three or four Aussie comics that have been on were either studying to be lawyers or were lawyers.

Did something go wrong in their law career and they came over to start comedy as a sort of second?

I don't know, I think they just do it in the same way that most bands would like art school students, weren't they?

Anyway, I'll shut up about that, it's boring.

But to you, cut that.

So yeah, but to you, I mean, you started podcasting early as well.

I mean, early for the for the current boom anyway.

Yes, it was all by accident that because I had this idea for a show which is the Comedians Surgery and it came about because I just thought, every time I'm doing a show, whether it's a weekend or midweek, other acts on seem to at some points, most acts seem to talk about something health wise, bring it up and some of it's obviously really quite interesting.

But in that nature of the gig, it's all for laughs.

Obviously, you're trying to find the quickest way.

I just thought, wouldn't it be interesting to do a show or a podcast where you can really explore these things?

It's funny, but it's interesting.

I trialed it out, which thinking back seems such a strange idea to do this, but it was a Saturday night in Oxford and there was a comedy show on, and I trialed running how the podcast would run after that gig.

We're talking like 11 at night.

I think I partly wanted to see whether it still had the comedic value I wanted.

It's quite a tough place to put, hey, any of the audience wants to stay and watch this thing.

To be honest, it worked really well and it really kicked on from there.

That's cool.

I then continued doing it in terms of a show.

The idea was to show and then it was by accident really that I decided that I would just record these when I went to Edinburgh and I just had all kinds of fun and space.

I got a podcast recorder and then recorded them all and everyone was happy to be on it.

Then I suddenly had a bank of all these things which I then released in time.

But we had some really, really interesting things that people talked about.

I think people really enjoy being on it because it's a genuine safe environment.

I think it's very rare in comedies to have that genuine moment where you can really talk and know that either you're going to be funny or it's just interesting and it's actually okay.

You find that people play around a lot and I think people wrote a lot of material from being on them as well.

From a medical perspective, I just thought it was really good because we were comedians and good communicators and we were able to talk about issues that sometimes are a bit more difficult to talk about, some that are a bit rarer and so it just helps start a conversation.

Men are very open now about these conversations.

I'm noticing like in friend groups and stuff, people will actually openly talk about things, not in a kind of, when my mom comes to visit, she'll tell me about dead relatives I've never met, but that kind of medical conversation that men should have with each other, and women obviously.

It's a classic thing where men traditionally and broadly not spoken about the stuff as much, and would leave things, getting things checked out too late, which I think probably does still happen, and less so because people are getting things, that people are a bit more clued up, a bit more aware and happy to talk.

The famous thing we always talk about in medicine, though, is if you have someone come into hospital and they say they're a farmer, and you're like, right, you're acutely aware that there must be something big going on if a farmer is coming because they do not come into the hospital unless a leg is hanging off or something.

So always be aware of the farmer that comes in.

It's funny that, isn't it, because there is the kind of, there's the techie person who like, they get a cold and they go, oh, she called the doctor, or, you know, I've got kids and, you know, when they're very young and certain things happen and you're like, should I call?

Because I don't want to waste people's time.

Prevention is always better than cure, if that's possible.

And that's what you're trying to do with all these checks and things.

When you get to a certain age and then you suddenly get called in, it does induce anxiety, but the whole point is to sort of pick up something.

In your mindset as a person, that still creates the anxiety.

It's like, oh, I've got to go and get it, you know.

Well, yeah, just the thought of it can do it, right?

Because I had a vasectomy a few years ago on my birthday, which was quite a treat for myself.

Happy birthday.

And it was terrible.

And again, the woman was like, your heart rate is quite high.

Of course, it's high.

You're about to do something.

I'm terrified.

I've never been to...

I went to have my tonsils out when I was seven.

Apart from that, I've never been in a hospital.

Never.

So I'm in there.

And of course, for someone that isn't there regularly is quite scary because you associate it with currently horror films and terrible things.

So it was during COVID as well.

They literally called me and they said, there's barely anyone in.

Do you want to come in on the 27th?

I was like, yes, my birthday in a pandemic.

I mean, let's go for it.

Did you say, it's quite ironic, I'm getting this done on my birthday when there will be no other birthdays I'll be celebrating due to the procedure.

Yeah, exactly.

The title of your book, Catch Your Breath, My Secret Life of a Sleepless.

I mean, it's just the sleeping thing.

We're all told we're supposed to have all this sleep, and especially with smartwatches, and you must have to sleep and sleep deprivation, and I definitely don't get enough sleep.

How much sleep do you get, and do you worry about it?

Is it something that is going to affect your health eventually, or do you just as a doctor just go, it's fine, I've been up for two days?

I was just listening to BBC Radio 6, and there was someone on, and they were saying that they don't sleep, that they go to bed quite late, and then just generally have a very short sleep and then wake up.

Mick Grimshaw did for you just say, oh my goodness, that's not much short.

And then they were telling a story about Prince apparently, who doesn't have any clocks in his house whatsoever, and that they went over and saw this, then taking the clock off his computer and things.

And so he lives without the concept of time.

So he would then just sleep when he's tired, right?

And then wake up and do so.

So he might end up having breakfast at like seven in the evening sort of thing, but he might end up writing some stuff at four in the morning.

And it all sounds like, wow, you know, sort of living without time.

So I think people have different takes on sleep.

I definitely like to get a good sleep if possible, but there's several things that can sort of interrupt it.

So I think now I've started hoping that I get enough sleep at the right times for things.

Yeah, it's something I do value quite a lot, but I'm quite a light sleeper as well.

So I need to take off in the sleep and then not land, because if I land, then it's going to take me ages to get back to sleep, basically.

Yeah, if you miss that one, I say that all the time, like if I go to sleep and then someone wakes me up an hour into having gone to bed, that's it.

I might as well get up and work all night, because I'm just going to be up anyway, or thinking about terrible things, or what I've got to do for the next month.

Well, exactly.

So one of the things that keeps people awake is the thinking about loads of stuff going on.

And I've heard that one of the things to sort of look at, to try and help with that is to give your mind something to think about, to do, that takes enough of the thinking power to go through it.

And then, but then also gives you a chance for a seat.

So I think that one I heard was like counting back from 10,000, which I certainly tried for a while.

But I mean, I don't know, it was just too boring.

Yeah, it's like doing Capital City, starting with A, you get to Z quite fast.

Yeah, I do one, I found it, and no one told me to do it.

I just started thinking about it one night.

Various travels that I've done, I sort of try and pick a memory that where was that?

And it pops in your head and you can't quite remember where it is.

Bank that and go, right, where is that?

I'll think about that later.

And when you're in bed falling asleep, really go into that memory and try and work out where that is.

And I've got about five that I still don't know where they are.

So I'll pick one of them and I'll have a look around.

And it usually makes me fall asleep because I can't find the answer, because I don't know.

You know, so it's like this thing that you can never ever find out.

So that kind of works.

I love a double day.

I don't know if you've obviously...

A double day?

Yeah, well, you stay up a whole day, do stuff all night and then do the next day.

But then you know when you go to bed that night, you're going to sleep really well because you're so tired and you really need it.

That's the post night shifts of the doctor.

But I went to see a friend who was working in, I think he was working in A&E in New Zealand.

And I was over there just traveling for a couple of weeks and I met up with him and he finished his night shift and picked me up and we went and got in kayaks and then kayaked for about 3000 kilometers or whatever.

I don't know, we're probably not that far.

And then we went out camping and stuff and he lasted the whole day out.

But his view was, I cannot go to sleep otherwise, I need to stay up.

Whereas for me, after my night shift, I do need to get some sleep in because just generally, unless there's been a good night shift, and a good night shift means that I've been up the entire night doing X, Y and Z.

And you have to really be concentrating on your work and not making mistakes.

So how do you juggle that if you've been doing comedy till 11 o'clock the night before?

So I would rarely have a show the night before.

What happens more frequently is that I would have a show and then a night shift sort of thing the next day.

Because you've got the day to recover from that.

When I just started medicine and comedy, I was juggling both.

I was doing a gig and then a night shift and things like that.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering.

Yeah.

So it wasn't too bad.

As long as it was local, you could sort of fit it in.

But generally, I try now, especially with the tour show, that's too much to do, especially with traveling and things like that.

You need to...

Yeah, of course.

So I plan all the...

As much as I can around it, essentially.

I mean, just a caveat here.

I will put this out in January when your tour resumes in...

I think it's the 24th at Litchfield, Garrick.

Should we see how many tickets are left for Litchfield, Garrick?

Let's do this live for Litchfield, Garrick.

If we count the ones that have got an I in the middle of them, it looks like there is 18 tickets left.

18?

They'll be gone by the time this comes out.

These are tour...

I mean, I'm not saying it's quite as fast selling as the Oasis gigs, but...

Yeah.

Are you doing Edinburgh next year?

Are you going to compete with that?

I'm just thinking about doing some dynamic pricing now that I've seen this, so maybe we should put the prices up for people at the back.

I'm hopefully going to be doing Edinburgh next year.

Are you talking about Oasis doing the...

It's just going to be some fun, isn't it?

There's going to be a lot of interesting haircuts in the crowd.

I don't know if...

Do Oasis fans want to see, I don't know, Midnight Fringe Theatre?

I'm not really sure.

Maybe.

I don't really want to know.

I mean, I...

I thought that was quite a good sort of link.

That was linked to a no-exist song, obviously.

Okay, just in case no one else...

Okay, fine.

I was trying to save you from the pun.

I just...

I wasn't sort of being dismissive of you.

I was just quoting the Oasis lyric, but yeah.

I mean, I pretend I didn't like Oasis.

I used to love Oasis.

I absolutely did love them, but I loved Blur as well.

So there we go.

But I prefer Blur, obviously.

Should we swerve into some podcast questions?

Yeah.

Because you're becoming a well-known face.

Is there a reality TV show that you would go on if they asked you?

Well, I mean, Love Island obviously comes to mind.

Just to speak of which, I need to go to the gym soon.

Dr.

Special.

Yeah.

Does TASMAT account as a reality show?

Well, there we go.

I guess it is reality, isn't it?

Well, you're bound to be on there anyway.

That's got to happen.

What about something more uncomfortable?

I do.

I'm a celeb, I think.

I do that.

I think that's quite a good captive.

Oh, I'll tell you the one.

I would definitely do.

And I actually tried to apply for it last year.

It was traitors.

Oh, yeah, traitors.

Don't get me started.

The problem is, I don't actually think I'll be that good at it.

It's such an exploration of human behavior with consequences in a game format, which I don't think we see quite as much in anything else, whether it's been Big Brother or Love Island, because there is clear sort of heroes, villains in there, and it's all a game.

And if you play the game, you win.

But it's easy to get wrapped up, obviously, in the emotions of the whole thing, what's going on.

Would you want to be a traitor?

I don't know.

I think someone like my wife would be really good at the traitor stuff.

I think she'd be really good at it.

I don't think I would.

I might get sussed out.

It's the people, they make friends, and they say things like, and they start crying, and they're like, oh, I just wouldn't want to be a traitor because I came, I've made such friends for life.

No, play the game, play the game.

You're there to get the money.

The whole end of the last one, the whole end of the last one.

Oh, my goodness.

That was so good, wasn't it?

I mean, what a blinder he played, but yeah, it's just, it's just, you get really wrapped up in it.

Have you seen the New Zealand one?

No, I haven't.

That's really good.

And the Australian one's very good as well.

It's been cancelled.

There's two seasons of that.

In one of the Aussie ones, there's a kind of guy like him who basically, you know, does, I mean, he's so good at the game.

It's incredible.

And I suggest you seek it out by legal or other means.

It's a very watchable version of it.

Yeah, it's really, really good.

I think there's one, an Australian one as well, where someone got absolutely duped by one of the traitors to vote off all the other faithfuls.

And then they were like, yep, okay, we've won the money.

Yep.

And then it turned out, obviously, the other one wasn't.

And then I think I remember seeing the footage of just the gobsmacked face.

It's the gobsmacked face, isn't it?

Well, there's one of those in New Zealand at the end for this one, I won't say who.

There's a gobsmacked face and I love the gobsmacked face because then, because I don't mean to be horrible, but you're looking at the TV going, oh, you're an idiot.

Why did you fall for that?

He's clearly lying to you.

But the only evidence you've got, the only evidence you've got because obviously you've got faithful and traitors and if that was it, there's you just taking people's words for it.

But the only evidence you've got is that the traitors have to get people out and they have to do stuff.

So you've got to gather the evidence from just that.

But at some point in the game, it gets to such nuances that you really are, it's a 50-50 guess if you're in the game because you haven't got the evidence and you don't know, and then suddenly you're going on feelings.

And we're watching it, we know they don't.

It's making me feel anxious thinking about this.

Really?

It's funny because if you pitch it, I remember seeing an ad for it, I think probably on Graham Norton or something, and I just looked at it and thought, God, that looks like the worst pile of old shit.

I've never watched that.

And then I watched one episode and I've never been hooked by anything so much.

Yeah, absolutely hooked.

Can't wait for the next one.

I know what day it's on.

I know what time it's on.

I ain't missing that.

You know, it's like the key is not to get too emotional in it.

And I think it's obviously when you're in the game, for some people, that is just too difficult.

I'd love you to get into it because then I could ask you, do they eat that breakfast?

Oh, my goodness.

That breakfast looks really old and dry and that can't be what they eat.

That's got to be for sure.

Yeah, I don't know.

But at the start, it's really it's really brutal.

I remember I think the last episode last season, someone said a joke to a couple of the others.

And then that was the reason they gave to vote her off.

And it was literally one passing comment.

And she was like, well, no, I'm faithful.

But you have to vote someone off basically.

So they went by that.

So you've almost got to give no one a read.

So when you go in, you've got to be welcome, like friendly, and that people would want to have you around.

But also have no indication.

Don't even joke about it at the start.

Which would be difficult if you were a comedian, not to joke about it.

Yeah, you'd be going, always suspicious.

That first season, they'd lined everyone up, and they told everyone to line up in the order of who they thought was the best at the game and the worst at the game.

And then the two people at the end, they just got rid of them.

Do you remember that?

And they wrote them off.

Wow.

It was amazing, yeah.

I think one of them came back eventually.

Do you remember the Scottish guy who, someone made a comment like, most like a sheep, as in like following the crowd.

And they put him down.

And then he came into the round table, and then just had a meltdown, just saying, look, you know, I've quite found it.

And then basically lost it and just said, and then they all just went, I'm sorry, but either you are a traitor or B, you've just lost it, you're out.

Yeah, he got really, we're watching him just go, oh mate, you're digging a hole.

It's not even you, what are you doing?

Stop talking, stop talking.

It is hard to watch.

It's quite stressful.

Well, they are doing a celebrity one.

I know that for sure.

I was told by someone that works on it that they weren't, but I know that they are.

It's all hush hush.

But I don't think anyone has been selected yet, so you should get yourself in.

I'm trying to sled myself in.

Yeah, sled yourself in.

I've got a little favour to ask you.

Could you please follow us on social media?

And if you've got time, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get them.

It all helps drive traffic back to the podcast.

But for now, let's get back to the current episode of Television Science Podcast.

What's your favourite jingle?

My favourite jingle?

When I'm going to work in the morning in the hospital, I listen to Radio 1 and if I get to a certain point, well, no, I know that when I'm driving, that the Greg James show is going to start.

So when I hear that jingle, I know the day started.

Yes, so I feel it's always followed by Greg James, like, hey, good morning.

It's like, hi Greg.

So I feel like that's your favourite jingle.

I think so.

I'm just trying to think if there's anything else.

Did you see the show he did that was made by traitors?

It was called, what was it called?

Well, they went up and down.

I call it up and down in my head.

They lived in a flat, in an apartment block, if you like.

And in the bottom, there are all these people in bunk beds, and at the top, there was an apartment, and they would vote people up and vote people down.

I do know what you mean.

Yeah.

And it was like upstairs, downstairs.

Yeah.

Do you remember the zombie thing he did years ago?

So there was an outbreak and everyone attended zombies, and then he was basically presenter, and then there was a whole, it was a reality show.

It was a genuine game show, presented by Greg James.

No.

It doesn't only do very strange television.

It's called I Survived a Zombie Apocalypse.

And basically, they were all holed up in this bunker, and they had to get through to the end.

And so you were basically, if you got caught by a zombie, that was when you were out basically.

So you were all teamed together.

And the third, I remember it started off, they were all had a night in the bunks and stuff.

And then suddenly all these zombies were trying to get in, and it was quite scary, so they had to escape.

And then they had various tasks.

They stay true to zombie stuff.

So basically one of them was they had to lather themselves with zombie guts and then walk through a park with those zombies to get to the other side.

And if they made any sort of sounds or anything, then they get caught.

The only thing that really bugged me was that it was clearly described that the zombie outbreak was due to a virus.

And at one point, someone had been bitten or something, and they come up with an antidote or the antibiotics they need to get.

Antibiotics do not work against viruses.

Antibiotics are for bacteria.

So that bugs me.

But apart from that, there you go.

It was 2015, believe it or not, either way.

2015, that's ahead of its time.

Yeah.

Wow, that will come out now.

Do you remember when Darren did his, Darren Brown did his apocalypse, where he made that guy think that there was a zombie apocalypse happening in real life.

No, no, I must have to look at that, though.

That was a lot.

So yeah, so you've got gripes when you're watching, so it must be impossible to watch anything medical for you guys.

It's quite interesting when you see someone, saying is in intensive care and on a ventilator, and then you look and their face is just, there's nothing happening to their face, there's no breathing tube or anything like that.

So little bits like that.

But yeah, generally, I mean, I think this starts to get better and they starts to have more, probably medical consultation.

So I think things in more modern times are a bit better.

Otherwise, it's just lazy, isn't it?

Yeah, I'd love to go back and re-watch House, because that was all just gobbledygig to me.

So that must have all been real terminology, because I remember him talking about learning the lines for that.

And it was just like, you didn't know what any of the words meant.

And they just learn them and spill them out quickly and then get on with the next bit.

Yeah, I didn't watch too much of House.

But I know it was basically he would just miraculously come up with these amazing diagnoses and what for sort of thing.

So I think the term House is used for someone who's done something particularly interesting and intriguing.

All right, House.

Oh, you use it as a slam.

I think so.

Okay, I'll end with one other question.

If you can pick a number from 1 to 22, we'll see what happens.

16.

What is the biggest change that you have witnessed TV wise?

I think people watching less live TV.

I think people watch a lot more on catch up.

And to watch something live is not necessarily the thing.

And also because you can watch live when something has just started.

So for instance, I watched Have I Got News For You last week, but I started watching it 10 minutes before it finished, but I started watching from the beginning.

So you suddenly got people watching it on so many different ways.

I mean, it just amazed me how they managed to calculate how many viewers were live and then also how many are watching it on catch up.

Do I count as a catch up or do I count as watching it live?

Because I also watched it at the same time.

So the dynamics of that and how people watch things.

And I think it used to be the case, obviously, that people would crowd in front of the TV to watch something at a particular time it came out.

And now, there are events like that, where people will have things, so you know, whether it's something like House of Dragon and they're releasing it at a particular time and people will maybe watch certain things like that.

Now, it's definitely the case of at your leisure and we're not recording things like we used to or you can just go back and catch it.

So I think that's the biggest thing I've seen.

I think there's been a change there, isn't there?

Because there used to be, not that long ago, that Say Have I Got News For You was on.

You'd have to wait till it had aired for it to pop up on the iPlayer maybe half hour afterwards.

Absolutely.

And yeah, and I remember that with Match of the Day as well, which was quite frustrating if you'd missed your football team, that you couldn't go back.

But this exact thing happened the other day and I was able to go back and start it.

So yeah, that's definitely been the biggest change.

And I think that's just the modern viewership, isn't it?

Is that people will just watch stuff as and when.

I was just wondering when they'll turn it off, you know, at some point, will they turn off the live transmission of television?

Will there be any need for it?

I don't think they'll turn off the live.

I mean, there's a lot of I think the big 24-hour news channels, I think they still get to see the benefit of people just...

But what I've noticed is that you'll meet people who say, I don't watch TV, I don't watch TV.

But what they mean is sometimes is that they don't watch live TV, but they'll go online and watch something there.

So they are watching TV content, but not necessarily live all the time.

So, yeah, I mean, you could really use that.

I remember I worked in theatre for a long time.

So I didn't own a television for 20 years, but I still saw television programs, obviously on my laptop, wherever I was.

And also there's a comfort thing, I think, with live TV, it's almost like you know that other people are watching this as well.

And it's almost like, I think there's a subliminal comfort of watching things together.

It's a bit like Twitch, when people watch stuff together, you know how many people are sort of watching that channel.

I was just going to tell you one thing, my most like, you know, something that made me feel like I really got away with something once was I downloaded an episode of Have I Got News For You just before I flew to China.

And it was around the time of the 2014.

So it was like the 25th anniversary of Tiananmen Square.

And there was something in that episode that was banned.

I knew it was banned anyway.

So I downloaded it on the iPlayer.

I flew to Beijing and I plugged it into the TV in the hotel.

And I watched Have I Got News For You in Beijing, knowing full well that it was completely banned and couldn't be seen there.

And it felt really like great, like really dodgy that I'd got away with something.

It's like my most favorite episode I've watched.

I was like, oh, this is really, this is really naughty.

Quite an expensive way to get your kick, isn't it?

It's true.

All right.

Well, Ed, I'll let you go, man, because, you know, thank you so much for coming on Television Times.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me on.

And I'll say goodbye now.

All right.

Cheers.

Thanks very much.

See you later.

That was me talking to Ed Patrick, comedian.

Let's try it again.

Anesthetist, have I done it?

I don't know, maybe, he'll let me know.

I enjoyed talking to him, even though I didn't know him.

It was good fun, right?

You know, check him out online.

He's got a tour, which starts very soon, restarting very soon.

And obviously he's on telly all the time on various things, so check him out and check out his clips.

But now to today's outro track.

Right, today's outro track is called Behind Enemy Lines.

It was written in 2009 and recorded in America in Arizona with my wife.

She wasn't married to me then, though, but yes, this was one of those post 9-11, unfortunately, I have to admit, slightly anti-American songs that I used to write.

And yeah, it's about being in a place where you, there's a lot of flags and stuff, you know, and it makes me feel a little bit, a bit nervous when I see flags or uniforms, if I'm honest.

Oh, the song's begun.

So this is it.

This is Behind Enemy Lines.

Hey, how are you today?

Would you like to start in with that?

Is that all for you today?

That was Behind Enemy Lines from the album We Argue In Silence, which you can listen to in full on Spotify, Amazon, what's it called?

Not iTunes anymore, Apple Music.

Anyway, that was this week's episode of Television Times with Ed Patrick.

Come back next week for another great episode.

Until then, thanks for listening, and bye for now.

Look into my eyes.

Tell all your friends about this podcast.