Night-time drama, incontinence pads and the uniquely dark humour of one double-amputee Alzheimer’s patient.

In addition to funny anecdotes, learn everything you ever wanted to know (and a few things you probably didn’t) about Britain’s care system, and be encouraged to think differently about the value of our elderly and the carers who look after them. Expectation executive producer Morwenna Gordon said: ‘I was completelywon overby Pope’s writing. Honest, insightful, empathetic and with laugh out loud moments too. I’m so pleased to be working together to adapt this incredible book for TV." Lonergan is a comedian and writer who has also taken his memoir on a stand-up tour titled The Care Home Tour. It is for this reason Lonergan believes ‘twee and saccharine representations of care homes are moderately unethical’ - and why he doesn’t shy away from reporting some unpalatable truths and incidents which are, for want of a better word, ‘yukky’. Such unfiltered frankness makes real the trials and tribulations of the care home and its residents that so widely overlooked. Lonergan said the TV version will be “both light and dark; uncompromising, poetic and very funny.” Writer of the TV version has not yet been set.The Executive Producer, Morwenna Gordon, said that she found Lonergan’s writing to provide laugh out loud moments and that it was honest and empathetic. The Acting Head of Media Rights at Penguin Random House, Hannah Weatherill, described the memoir as extraordinary and loved how he captured the personalities of each of the residents. Pope Lonergan is also incredibly excited stating that he was ‘buzzin’ to be working with Expectation’ and described the company as having a nice, insightful and talented team. He also added that the adaption will be ‘dark, uncompromising, poetic’ as well as extremely funny. On the other hand, Lonergan very clearly developed deeper links with those he was looking after, long-term, in care homes. They still say and do the most odd, sometimes transgressive, things – and Lonergan knows that’s too funny not to report, but we get a better understanding of the people behind the peculiarities. Part of this dignity depends on people being treated as unique individuals, rather than inanimate cogs in the machine of a care home, and I really loved the warmth with which Lonergan writes about the people he cares for. Lonergan offers us a holistic sense of his residents, and throughout the book we meet a cast of characters with chequered histories and strong personalities. The fixation on profit has been disastrous for the care sector - and even the most trivial and petty acts of insubordination can have a positive impact on a work shift. I don’t care what the company directors say. We won’t be using peanut butter sparingly! I’ll turn lights on when I’m leaving the room! I’ll make sure I hit every corner when transporting food or medicine trolleys! I’ll take up smoking just so I can do it near an oxygen tank! Having said that - my main reason for not wearing the tunic is because it’s tight around my love handles.’

He has a wonderful turn of phrase, both serious and comic, realising that gallows humour is an essential release-valve in a demanding job witnessing decay and detachment.Executive producer Morwenna Gordon adds: "I was completely won over by Pope's writing. Honest, insightful, empathetic and with laugh out loud moments too. I'm so pleased to be working together to adapt this incredible book for TV." The publishers say: "Whether he's initiating a coup d'état against new regulations with the residents, or forging a bond with the 98-year old who once called him a fat slut, Pope Lonergan's work is infinitely varied. This no-holds-barred account shows what life inside a care home is really like, for both residents and carers. Featuring night-time drama, incontinence pads and the uniquely dark humour of one double-amputee Alzheimer's patient, here you can learn everything you ever wanted to know (and a few things you probably really didn't) about Britain's care system. This important memoir challenges us all to think differently about the value of our elderly, and also the carers who look after them." People generally don't like to think about themselves or their loved ones needing this kind of care, and it's almost one of the last taboos. And care home residents (I too hate the world clients) shouldn't need to have to be 'humanized' but Pope does bring out the people so lovingly, whilst still sharing what it's like when the people he's getting to know may be disinhibited, emotional, or disconnected in ways their families don't recognize, for worse and sometimes for better.

But his “unsanitised, unsentimentalised” account of the decade he spent “wearing haemorrhoids as cufflinks”, spooning out yoghurt and hearing people’s most intimate (and sometimes final) confessions will leave readers in no doubt of the emotional, physical and financial pressures of the undersung and underpaid job. It does for care workers what doctor-turned-comedian Adam Kay’s 2017 memoir This is Going to Hurt did for medics. Expectation Exec Morwenna Gordon added: “I was completely won over by Pope’s writing. Honest, insightful, empathetic and with laugh out loud moments too. I’m so pleased to be working together to adapt this incredible book for TV.” I think if I'd have read just the memoir side of things then it would have been 4 or 5 stars. And similarly, if I'd read just the academic bits it would probably have been rated higher. But unfortunately they just didn't blend well and it really affected the reading experience.Physical and mental deterioration is not something most people are comfortable witnessing, which is why so many elderly people end up in care homes. But it also means these are ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ places, open to abuse both physical and financial. Why is it that we come to value to the care of those closest to us so little that it is farmed out to profit centres employing people on the lowest possible wages, who are forever leaving for easier ways to earn a crust? I found the form and structure of the book to be a little less successful; Lonergan blends reminiscent stories with social/political commentary, and while both parts are valuable, I, like other reviewers, found the combination to be clunky. The book would have been improved by some editing to make the transitions smoother or to weave the commentary into real-life examples; reminiscences of Lonergan’s own. So, I preferred some aspects of this book to others, but it is undeniably an important addition to the existing literature on social care. I’ve been a fan of the ‘professional memoir’ genre since reading Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt, a darkly comedic diary of Kay’s time as a junior doctor in the NHS – and Lonergan’s book is a valuable contribution from the rarely-heard perspective of a care worker. At the same time, Lonergan rails against a social and political system that underfunds and undervalues care work and the people who do it. Ultimately, Lonergan leaves the care sector due to burnout; unfortunately a common story among carers due to low wages, physically and emotionally intense work, and long shift hours. PDF / EPUB File Name: Ill_Die_After_Bingo_-_Pope_Lonergan.pdf, Ill_Die_After_Bingo_-_Pope_Lonergan.epub

But you can’t blame him for quitting. The last home he worked in had a sign at the entrance reading: “Respect and Love for Everyone.” He thought it was “a good maxim to live by. Especially when you’re trying to show respect for people who are in their autumnal years.” The only problem is that he would read the sign and “then spend the next 14 hours… washing old knobs for minimum wage. So where’s my f---ing respect?”The book covers incidents such as the dark humour of a double-amputee Alzheimer's patient, Lonergan forging a bond with a 98-year old who called him a ‘fat slut’, and a care home's residents staging a coup d'état against new regulations. Clarkson’s Farmproducer Expectation is adapting comedian Pope Lonergan’s memoir about a decade spent caring for the elderly for TV. Whether he’s initiating a coup d’etat against new regulations with the residents, or forging a bond with the 98-year old who once called him a fat slut, Pope Lonergan work is infinitely varied. This no-holds-barred account shows what life inside a care home is really like, for both residents and carers. Featuring night-time drama, incontinence pads and the uniquely dark humour of one double-amputee Alzheimer’s patient, here you can learn everything you ever wanted to know (and a few things you probably really didn’t) about Britain’s care system.This important memoir challenges us all to think differently about the value of our elderly, and also the carers who look after them. I’ll Die After Bingo by Pope Lonergan – eBook Details