Where: Stroud Subscription Rooms

When: Sunday, October 8, 7.30pm

Phil Hammond - NHS doctor, BBC broadcaster, Private Eye journalist, activist and whistle-blowing comic - is coming to Stroud with two thoughtful and topical comedies rolled into one show.

He covers subjects he is passionate about - staying sane, dying with dignity and saving the NHS.

In the first half of his show, Phil ponders what we can do to sort ourselves out. He looks back on his 54 years and considers how he has apparently managed to remain sane in a family with a strong history of depression and suicide. Is he lucky, ignorant or just yet to be diagnosed?

In the second half, Phil sets about saving the NHS. He claims our most prized asset is being ideologically and incompetently destroyed. The NHS was built on love but is now run on fear, and the stressed-out staffs are often sicker than the patients.

Phil Hammond was an NHS GP for 20 years, has worked in sexual health and now works in a specialist NHS team for young people with chronic fatigue.

As a Private Eye journalist, he broke the story of the Bristol heart scandal in 1992, gave evidence to the public inquiry and was shortlisted for the Martha Gelhorn prize for investigative journalism for his Private Eye special report on the shocking treatment of NHS whistle-blowers - Shoot the Messenger (2012)

Phil has been an outspoken supporter of junior doctors in their current dispute with the English government.

Phil is author of Staying Alive, How to Get the Best from the NHS and Sex, Sleep or Scrabble?. He has appeared on Have I Got News for You, The News Quiz, The Now Show and Question Time.

Tickets for Phil's show cost £16.50 or £13.50 concessions (Including NHS staff) and are available from the box office on 01453 760900.