“Everything will be alright in the end and, if it isn’t alright, it’s not the end”
One of the phrases used most often by Mark Kermode on the podcast above all podcasts, known by LTLs (long-time listeners) as “Wittertainment”. referencing the wittering and banter of Kermode and his partner Simon Mayo.
Their weekly film review show started on the BBC over 20 years ago and this year moved to an independent platform (see here)
The phrase above came to mind today as I took yet more tablets for my chemo treatment. You can see them in the shot glass in the picture, I take 11 a day, and will take 1232 over 8 cycles of 14 days on, 7 days off. I’m so far only halfway through the second cycle and I’m already getting “tablet fatigue”. Yes, I can swallow them easily enough, but these things are toxic (I’m not even allowed to handle them, I put them in my mouth with a spoon) and every day I am on the tablets I feel less than 100%, often far less than 100%. In fact, when Kermode and Mayo announced they’d do a live podcast show to launch their new version, I immediately booked tickets, but then couldn’t go, simply didn’t feel well enough.
So, I remind myself that: “Everything will be alright in the end and, if it isn’t alright, it’s not the end”
Now, to a second thought. Longevity can be amazing. I’ve been listening to this podcast for something like fifteen years. I certainly remember “banking” loads of the podcasts to listen to on long drives on a family holiday in France back in 2011, as my two oldest boys loved the show too. More recently then, over the last two-plus years of the pandemic, one of the things that helped us feel connected over the nearly 5000 miles that separated me in London from them in Cayman was our love for movies in general and also the banter we share from things like the repeated lines and jargon from that show.
In fact, if memory serves, when I told my boys three months ago today of my cancer diagnosis, one of them said to me:
“Everything will be alright in the end and, if it isn’t alright, it’s not the end”