Rhod Gilbert prepares his ‘darkest ever’ live tour following cancer treatment, as Morocco Trek put on hold
Rhod Gilbert says his new show, which he’s planning to tour next year, will be “the darkest” he’s ever done, following treatment for cancer.
The 54-year-old Welsh stand up was diagnosed with stage four head and neck cancer last year, and has since undergone surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Now back on our screens for season five of Growing Pains, he tells Sky News: “I’m feeling pretty good. I’m bouncing back and very happy to be working again.”
Gilbert would have been heading out to Morocco any day now, to trek up Mount Toubka – the highest peak in the Atlas Mountains – as part of a charity hike he’s led since 2013 and the first since his cancer diagnosis, raising money for Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, Wales.
Now earthquakes in the country – estimated to have killed nearly 3,000 – have clearly altered plans, but Gilbert says if it’s possible to go, he will still go: “We’ve got people on the ground assessing the situation. And I guess if we can go, we probably should because we’ll be employing local people and putting money into our local economy and we may be able to help. The primary concern is obviously for the for the people there.”
The star has already completed five previous treks for the cancer centre, raising over £1.8m, and had been their patron for a decade before joining them as a patient – a situation he describes as “odd”.
Clearly, with a tour, a trek and new TV show all on the go, Gilbert’s a busy man.
Opening up about next year’s tour, he says: “It’s going to be pretty dark, but from what I’ve done so far – I’ve done a few little works in progress in Edinburgh and things – I’m really happy with the way it’s coming along.
“While it’s the darkest stuff I’ve ever done, clearly, after what I’ve been through, I think for me it’s up there with the funniest. It’s certainly making me laugh. And it seems so far to be working.”
Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff. Pic: Rhod Gilbert/Facebook
As to whether the funny man ever fears being cancelled, as culture wars rage and some claim fear of causing offence is killing comedy, Gilbert says he isn’t worried.
‘I’m just laughing at my own life’
“In the past, I was talking about things like electric toothbrushes, duvets, lost luggage, mince pies. If anybody’s ever cancelled about those things, I’d be interested to hear. But I doubt it.
“Now, in my last show the Book of John and this next one, I’m talking about me and my experiences and you know, my mum’s Alzheimer’s, my stroke, my infertility, my struggle to have kids, my cancer. So, I’m talking about my stuff, my experiences, so, no I don’t give it any thought whatsoever.
“While I’m talking about stuff that is big controversial subjects, I guess I’m talking about my experiences, and I think people are fine with that.”
He adds: “I never seek to try and get headlines with it or be especially edgy with it, I’m just laughing at my own life.”
Having used his platform to help break the silence around health issues in the past, he admits it’s not always easy joking about cancer.
“[My show’s] on a whole new topic that is a really tricky thing to navigate, you know, And that’s a real challenge and really exciting…
“It has the potential to move people more, it has as a potential to have a bigger impact on people, I think, than toothbrushes, duvets and stuff.”
Click to subscribe to Backstage wherever you get your podcasts
Away from the tricky topics his next live show, Gilbert has some more light-hearted fare in his latest TV show, Growing Pains, featuring a host of fellow celebrities opening up about their cringingly embarrassing teenage years.
The ex-girlfriend he owes everything to
Gilbert himself had suffered crippling shyness throughout his childhood and teens, lasting into adulthood – despite his attention-grabbing choice of career.
He explains: “I was terribly shy, you know, I’d never been on stage, until I was in my thirties. I did one school play where the only reason the drama person made me do it was to try and get me out of my shell, to try and push me to be less shy and less self-conscious. It didn’t really work, and I didn’t enjoy it.”
So, what happened between his unsuccessful performance of Oh What A Lovely War and becoming one of the country’s best loved stand ups?
It turns out it was an ex-girlfriend who changed his life.
“I had a girlfriend who just thought I could do it and just kept on at me and just kept encouraging, kept nagging, whatever way you want to say it for about eight years, she kept on at me and in the end, I went, ‘Alright, I’ll give it a go’.
“But by that point I suppose I’d been a director of a market research company. I was used to standing up in front of people and presenting. I was probably a bit less shy than I had been in my teens and twenties, certainly. But university was a write-off, you know, an absolute social anxiety, shyness right-off. I barely left my room.”
Read more:
Russell Brand denies ‘serious criminal allegations’
Hugh Jackman and his wife separate after 27 years of marriage
The ex in question was Bryony Katherine Worthington – now Baroness Worthington – a British environmental campaigner and life peer in the House of Lords.
“I owe her everything… without her, I would never, ever, ever in a million years entertain the idea of doing this. It wasn’t in my head one jot.”
Made a peer for her lead role in drafting the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act, Baroness Worthington is clearly a woman with many strings to her bow – she was also the first woman to breastfeed in the House of Lords.
Gilbert jokingly adds: “I think she makes a significant difference to my life, but then in their work on the environment has probably made a significant difference to more.”
Dermot O’Leary
On Dermot O’Leary’s potty mouth: ‘I nearly fell off my chair’
Guest appearances on Growing Pains include comedian Greg Davies (Gilbert says the Taskmaster star “used to chase [his sister] around a field on a on a moped with a cricket bat”); Presenter Dermot O’Leary (Gilbert says: “He swore in the studio, and I almost fell off my chair. I was like, ‘Dermot O’Leary, what!'”); and pop star Sophie Ellis Bextor (Gilbert admits to being jealous of her teen years: “The reason her life’s embarrassing is because it’s so bloody cool”).
As for what lies in store for Gilbert – who seems to be somewhat of a workaholic – he says: “I don’t have a goal, I don’t have a five-year plan. I don’t have a bucket list of professional things I want to do. But I’m still really enjoying what I do and evolving, I think, and, you know, pushing it into different areas, which is nice.”
And looking back, he’s pretty happy with what he’s achieved so far: “There’s nothing that I think, ‘Well I must correct that record and go back and, and successfully do that thing I didn’t successfully do’. What I’m really enjoying about my career at the moment is that it’s always changing.
“I guess [I need to] keep evolving, keep it changing, and keep surprising myself and keep enjoying what I do.”
And despite being unable to stop working for long, he’s hoping to take brief break in the sun – after he’s attended an obligatory end-of-summer wedding.
Still in touch with all his old schoolfriends, Gilbert is travelling back to Wales from his holiday in the South of France just to go to a pal’s wedding. Admitting they’ve been together “a long time,” but are only now tying the knot he jokes: “They’ve waited 30 years until I was on holiday, I do begrudge them a bit!”
Growing Pains is on Mondays at 9pm on Comedy Central.
The Who’s Zak Starkey is back in the band after reports earlier this week he’d been sacked.
A statement on the band’s official social media pages written by guitarist Pete Townshend said “communication issues” had been “aired happily” and Starkey was “not being asked to step down”.
Townshend also acknowledged the situation “blew up very quickly and got too much oxygen”, concluding “it’s over” and acknowledged his part in “the confusion”.
Titled, “News Flash! Who Backs Zak,” the long statement said Starkey was “not being asked to step down from The Who”.
It said: “There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.
“Roger and I would like Zak to tighten up his latest evolved drumming style to accommodate our non-orchestral line-up and he has readily agreed.”
Roger Daltrey and Starkey on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in March. Pic: PA
The rock and roll row followed the band’s Teenage Cancer Trust shows in March.
Townsend’s statement went on: “I take responsibility for some of the confusion. Our TCT shows at the Royal Albert Hall were a little tricky for me.
“I thought that four and a half weeks would be enough time to recover completely from having a complete knee replacement. (Why did I ever think I could land on my knees?) Wrong!
“Maybe we didn’t put enough time into sound checks, giving us problems on stage. The sound in the centre of the stage is always the most difficult to work with.”
So what went wrong?
Going on to highlight the specifics of what went wrong, Townshend added: “Roger did nothing wrong but fiddle with his in-ear monitors. Zak made a few mistakes and he has apologised. Albeit with a rubber duck drummer.
“We are a family, this blew up very quickly and got too much oxygen. It’s over. We move forward now with optimism and fire in our bellies.”
A review of one gig, published in the Metro, suggested frontman Roger Daltrey – who launched the annual gig series for the charity in 2000 – had been “frustrated” with the drumming during some tracks.
Townsend also said he owed drummer Scott Devours “an apology” for not “crushing the rumour” that he would be replacing Starkey in the Who line-up.
Devours is supporting Roger Daltrey on his solo tour, which kicked off this weekend.
Read more from Sky News:
The Last Of Us: The science behind the real ‘zombie’ fungus
Eurovision star and face of Bisto gravy dies
Starkey – who is the son of The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr – reposted Townshend’s statement, with the message: “V grateful to be a part of the Who family Thanks Roger and Pete xx”.
The 59-year-old drummer previously said he was “surprised and saddened” by news of his sacking.
He’s been with The Who for nearly three decades, after joining in 1996 for their Quadrophenia tour.
Starkey also drums for supergroup Mantra Of The Cosmos – along with fellow musicians Shaun Ryder and Bez from Happy Mondays, and Andy Bell of Ride and Oasis – and has previously played with Oasis, Lightning Seeds and Johnny Marr.
Entertainment
The Last Of Us: The science behind the real ‘zombie’ fungus – and is it an actual threat?
Could the next public health crisis be caused by a fungus?
Such an emergency is the basis of the post-apocalypse TV drama series The Last Of Us, which has returned for its second season on Sky Atlantic.
Starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, the show takes place in a world ravaged by a pandemic caused by a mass cordyceps outbreak, which transforms people into bloodthirsty abominations.
The prospect was outlined in its debut episode in 2023, when a prescient epidemiologist played by John Hannah warned how a warming climate could force some fungus to evolve into something more dangerous.
“Candida, ergot, cordyceps, aspergillus: any one of them could be capable of burrowing into our brains and taking control of not millions of us, but billions,” he said.
An extreme outcome with plenty of artistic licence taken – but is it entirely without scientific basis?
A mass cordyceps outbreak transforms people into blood-thirsty abominations in the show. Pic: HBO/Warner Media/Liane Hentscher
Do fungi really threaten humans?
“There are numerous fungi infecting the brains of human beings all over the planet, often with devastating outcomes,” says Professor Elaine Bignell, a world leader in the field of human fungal pathogen research.
“A number of fungal species are quite prominent pathogens and kill hundreds of thousands of people every year – it’s just the public is not well aware of this.”
A few of the dangers identified by The Last Of Us’s fictional epidemiologist previously featured on a list of health-threatening fungi by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Among the fungi deemed most high-risk was Aspergillus fumigatus, a common mould widespread in the environment in homes and outdoors, which can cause “chronic and acute lung disease” and can be deadly.
Aspergillus is a type of mould, common in homes
Candida species, which are behind complaints like thrush and skin rashes, are also one of the leading causes of bloodstream infection in intensive care patients.
Cryptococcosis neoformans – which infects the lungs and brain, causing pneumonia and meningitis in immunosuppressed patients – also made the list. It kills more than 100,000 people a year in sub-Saharan Africa.
“One thing killer fungi do have in common is they are able to grow at human body temperature, and that’s unusual for a fungus,” Prof Bignell tells Sky News.
“Most fungi in the environment are suited to growing in more temperate conditions, and it places quite a strain on any microorganism to counteract an immune response in a human body and cope with the high temperature.”
The main symptom of ringworm is a rash, which can spread. Pic: NHS
What about cordyceps?
Cordyceps was not on the threat list – but it is absolutely real.
The parasitic fungus infects and takes over the mind of insects, as it does to humans in The Last Of Us.
“There are about 600 species,” says Dr Mark Ramsdale, a professor in molecular microbiology at the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology.
“They are predominantly insect pathogens. It’s their insect host that they manipulate and change their behaviour. And so from that perspective, there is some basis there.”
A fly infected by a cordyceps fungus. Pic: Alejandro Santillana/University of Texas
Found in tropical forests, the fungus penetrates an insect’s body via spores, which are released to allow a fungus to reproduce and defend itself.
The fungus then guides its host into more humid locations to help it grow, before feeding on the remains and launching new spores from its corpse.
When it comes to humans, cordyceps is used in treatments and therapeutics – notably Chinese herbal medicines.
“There’s a long history of relationships between humans and this particular group,” Dr Ramsdale tells Sky News.
“There’s no evidence they’re causing disease in humans. However, in terms of their insect relationships, they do manipulate their hosts – and several fungi have evolved this capacity over time.”
Cordyceps growing from a caterpillar. Pic: L Shyamal/Wikimedia Commons
Ophiocordyceps caloceroides infecting a tarantula. Pic: Ian Suzuki/Wikimedia Commons
Could climate change the picture?
Another facet of The Last Of Us shared by the WHO’s landmark report was the potential influence of climate change on the nature of fungi and our relationship with it.
Prof Bignell says the impact of global heating will be “profound” for all microbes on our planet.
There are some 150,000 identified species of fungi in the world, well short of the millions estimated to exist, and few have what it takes to cope with the 37C temperature and other stresses imposed by the human body.
But some do, and more could – either those yet to be discovered or which adapt to survive on a warming planet.
Read more:
Fungus unknown to science discovered in Scotland
“It changes the selection pressures that are put on those huge, diverse life forms,” says Dr Ramsdale.
“Perhaps some could potentially make that transition from one lifestyle to another and become pathogenic in a context we haven’t thought of before.”
So the show’s pandemic may be far from factual, but it’s not completely without merit.
“What really is the most removed from the current status quo is the scale and the rate of the infections occurring in The Last Of Us,” says Prof Bignell.
“Some fungi can get passed from one person to the next – and in the environment we are exposed to them all the time – but it would take a very significant variant to be able to cause the sorts of species extinction event they’re dramatising.”
Humans are transformed into zombie-like monsters in the show. Pic: HBO/Warner Media/Liane Hentscher
So … no reason for alarm?
You can sleep easy knowing there won’t be a fungus that turns you into a zombie in your cereal tomorrow morning.
But COVID, researchers say, is proof we can’t rest on our laurels when it comes to public health threats and the potentially sudden nature of their arrival.
With fungal infection in humans being a relatively modern phenomenon, with few examples until the 1980s, and the absence of any antifungal vaccine research programmes, there’s certainly work to do.
“We have to be in a state of preparedness,” says Prof Bignell.
“We have to have a very good understanding of how different fungi can cause human diseases, how our immune systems cope with those microbes, and a good medicine cabinet with antifungal agents we know are effective.”
In the meantime, if you do happen to see anyone that looks like they’re covered in mushrooms and feasting on a member of their family – best steer clear.
The Last Of Us airs every Monday at 2am on Sky Atlantic.
Clodagh Rodgers, a singer best known for representing the UK at the 16th Eurovision Song Contest, has died aged 78.
The Northern Irish singer was described as “the rock of this family” by her son Sam, who said she died on Friday 18 April.
Sam Sorbie wrote: “With a heavy heart, my dear beautiful mum Clodagh has sadly passed away after battling an illness for the last three years. She passed away peacefully yesterday, surrounded by her family in Cobham.
“Mum has lived an incredible life, full of love and happiness. Her fantastic career performing, travelling the world, devoting her life to her two sons and being the rock of this family.
“Life will not be the same without Mum, but she will finally be at peace now with dad, nanny and pappa. We all love and miss her terribly.”
A regular face on the TV in the 1970s and 1980s, Rodgers performed Jack In The Box at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, finishing in fourth place behind Germany, Spain and the winners, Monaco.
Jack In The Box went on to reach number four in the UK singles chart, and although she entered the charts later that year with Lady Love Bug, the Eurovision track remained her biggest hit.
Rodgers began singing as a youngster and got her first record deal aged just 15.
Rodgers performing at the 16th Eurovision. Pic: BBC
She went on to appear on primetime shows including The Morecombe And Wise Show, The Two Ronnies, Top Of The Pops, Bruce Forsyth & The Generation Game and The Val Doonican Show.
She was chosen as the face of Bisto gravy in the 70s, following her Eurovision hit.
Read more from Sky News:
Robots race half-marathon against humans for first time
JD Vance meets with the Pope
(L-R) Rodgers with Ronnie Corbett in 1971, when they starred in Cinderella. Pic: AP
A talented live performer, she also starred in her own West End show Talk Of The Town, and West End musical hit Blood Brothers, as well as numerous variety shows and the pantomime Cinderella, co-starring comedian Ronnie Corbett.
Rodgers released six albums, five compilation records and numerous singles across her six-decade career. She insured her voice for £1m.
In 2001 she appeared as a recurring character in police drama The Bill.
Married twice, Rodgers leaves behind her two sons, Sam and Matt.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway