Hi de hi my lovelies!
Here is the last in the podcast series I did with the Wellcome Foundation.
Out today and I hope you enjoy it.
https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/XzugyREAACQA6YvG
As always with love Mark

https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/XzQWoBEAACMAyEMT

Isolation has helped slow the spread of COVID-19, but it’s left many of us aching for company. In the fourth episode of his podcast, health workers open up to Mark Thomas about the loneliness of lockdown. Mark, meanwhile, reveals he has ballet danced through his darkest days, much to his mum’s dismay.

Hosted by Mark Thomas, sound by Helen Atkinson, produced by Nicolas Kent, produced by Susan McNicholas and photography by Franklyn Rodgers 20 August 2020

It’s Good to talk

Coronavirus has made conversation complicated. It also means there are lots of difficult things that need to be said. In the third episode of his lockdown podcast, Mark Thomas talks to health workers about communication. Mark’s mum, meanwhile, cheerfully contemplates her own demise.

Hosted by Mark Thomas, sound by Helen Atkinson, produced by Nicolas Kent, produced by Susan McNicholas and photography by Franklyn Rodgers 13 August 2020

https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/Xyq03BAAACAAMOX0

COVID-19 has left us all feeling exposed, Mark Thomas and his mum Margaret included. In the second episode of his coronavirus podcast, Mark calls front-line health and care workers to chat about PPE, vulnerability and the urge to protect. His mum, meanwhile, shares a novel use for gin.

Download Episode #2 – https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/XyL-NxAAACAADrLk

‘Mark Thomas’s Lockdown Check-up’ is a six-part podcast commissioned by Wellcome Collection. New episodes are published every Thursday.

The podcast is written and presented by Mark Thomas, the sound editor is Helen Atkinson, and the producers are Nicolas Kent and Susan McNicholas. Photography by Franklyn Rodgers.

Comedian and activist Mark Thomas has moved back in with his mum for the duration of the pandemic. He’s 57 and she’s 85. He says she’s curmudgeonly; she says he’s the most aggravating person on the planet. In this six-part podcast, he reflects on their lockdown life together while investigating the wider impact of COVID-19.

Every night, Mark calls health and care workers across the country for a chat. Humbling and often heartbreaking, these conversations reveal what life is like on the coronavirus front line.

Episode #1 is out now – https://wellcomecollection.org/series/XwROKRQAAGwR-YMk

“Stop press!” is a fantastically out of date expression and I suppose the modern equivalent is “Don’t press send!” However…

Stop press!

New podcast starts on Thursday 30th July! Mark Thomas’s Lockdown Check-up.

I have spent lockdown in isolation with my 85 year old mother who is a wonderfully cantankerous bloody minded great grandmother, who I am sure has been the muse for more than one Roald Dahl character. 
Throughout this time I have retreated into the guest room (the cell) to record conversations with health and care workers about their lives and experiences working in the pandemic. The results are candid, funny, tender and raw.

Weaving between my experience with my mum and the testimony from health workers I attempt to follow the hopes, fears and frustrations during this f*cking mad time.

The podcasts are commissioned by Wellcome Collection and are published weekly from 30th July at 10am.

This is where to find each episode https://wellcomecollection.org/stories
Also check out their website, it is worth a meander! 

Mark