Written and produced in Merseyside, UK, the pilot sad-com series ‘Fifty Shades of Dave’ tackles important male mental health issues.
Set over just one week, the story follows protagonists Rosie (Claudia Grier) and Neil (Curtis Ledsham) hosts of the popular local Radio show ‘The Greenhouse’.
All’s well it seems until the show receives a tweet one evening from a man who needs their help. A man who says he isn’t coping. A man named ‘Dave’. Things go from bad to worse for this once celebrated duo as they decide to help ‘Dave’ live on air with disastrous consequences.
Writer and producer David Lee who lives in New Ferry describes the series as a ‘rollercoaster of self-discovery’ and says the series holds up a mirror to mental health issues, especially for the men in our local communities.
‘We all have a responsibility to listen to anyone in our communities that may need help. Male mental health especially falls under the radar for many reasons and this series aims to raise awareness of this issue and to destroy that stigma’
‘Fifty Shades Of Dave’ has been made possible due to funding from local initiatives in the Wirral, predominantly involve Northwest’s ‘ConnectUs’ and ‘Sparkfund’ projects and Wirral’s first and only suicide prevention centre, The Martin Gallier Project, Wirral.
If you’ve been affected by mental health issues and you’d like to share your story, please find them on Facebook and Twitter @fsodofficial and post with the hashtag #wearealldave
You can listen to the theme song ‘The Man With The Heart Of Stone’ by Curtis Ledsham and Tom Sturgess on FSOD, on 10th September. The exclusive lyric video and an AmazonMusic ‘Inspired’ playlist curated by David Lee featuring songs to whet your appetite for #fsodofficial will be featured. The release of the song coincides with World Suicide Prevention Day 2019
#fsodofficial #wearealldave #curtisledsham #tomsturgess #wspd #wspd19 #mentalhealthawareness #suicideprevention
‘Fifty Shades of Dave’ will be available to stream and download from September 16th, 2019 on all major podcast providers and YouTube.
Here’s to the cast who made this show possible –
Fenella Fudge, Claudia Grier, Allan Lear, Curtis Ledsham, Nadya Lee, Richard Oliver, James Phillips, Michael Prosper, Hannah Thompson, Ashley Tyler and David Tyson.
And here’s where you can find out more about the show
https://www.facebook.com/fsodofficial/
https://twitter.com/fsodofficial
https://www.instagram.com/fiftyshadesofdaveofficial/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4rf7T27uwpsQfuyavrU4AA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqSheXgblTs
https://www.gallierhouse.co.uk/themartingallierproject
Susan Mac Nicol’s review of the podcast series
I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I agreed with Dave that I’d listen and review the podcast series of five episodes. It’s a topic close to my heart so I was keen to see what was being addressed in this show. I wasn’t disappointed.
At first, it’s all a bit ‘what the heck am I listening to’ but soon the tomfoolery and banter between the two main characters, the radio show hosts Rosie and Neil, starts to make sense. They offer a show called The Greenhouse where they invite the inhabitants of Bickenhole, the town where they live, to come on air and talk about their lives. You get the sense it’s often parishioners mouthing off about the kids in their gardens and the day to day fickleness of small-town life. Until it’s not about this anymore. Instead, things get a little more serious.
Dave calls in and from that point on, this man, who sets off a chain of events with his need for someone to simply listen to him, and understand what he’s going through, ignites a fire in the town. So much so that the radio owner, Declan, is far from happy with the events. It’s all about the bottom line and the sponsors, see. It’s not about helping people feel better or actually dealing with issues that run deep, and certainly not about compassion or mercy. Declan rails on Rosie and Neil for their ‘socialism, liberalism, activism and cultural Marxism’ and issues them an ultimatum.
Rosie is open, takes no prisoners and seems to have a bit of a ‘reputation. and her brash, foul-mouthed persona hides something deep and hurtful to her. She has a secret in her past that troubles her. Neil is the quieter one, steadfast, and keeps Rosie in check but as you’ll gather when you go along, he’s got a secret to hide too. We don’t actually find out what it is but listening, you can certainly make an educated guess.
There’s a lot of adult humor in this show, plenty of sexual innuendoes involving pastrami slices and chicken nuggets, missing shoes, ScrumPox and a lack of cock. No, not the feathered kind. I was delighted to see some current events mixed in there to spice things up. There are some dark, tongue in cheek moments referencing certain politicians, the Great British Bake Off, LGBTQ affairs, the current state of homelessness and food banks in the country, local elections and discussions about Tories. There’s even a rather risque comment about suicide bombers. Nuff said.
Episode 5 is where everything comes together and let me warn you, this is not a sweet, happy ever after story. This show is about peer pressure, the bullying to conform, to be people other than who we are. It’s about managing your depression, treating it like a cactus in your hands, and not letting those spikes hurt too much when you can’t let it go. The show tells of the reality of toxic masculinity that tells men to bottle things in, not show their feelings, ‘men don’t cry’, and deal with things themselves. Man up is something most men suffering depression have heard in their lifetimes, from people who should be supporting them and encouraging them to talk about their fears and pressures.
Everything said this is a show everyone should listen to. It’s brilliantly written, beautifully performed and the players are passionate about the message they are sending. It’s dark, often brutal and you can’t listen to the ending without being made starkly aware that this is some people’s life we’re listening to. It’s real, and gritty and happens more often than it should.
Editorial Note
I would bet each one of us knows someone who suffers from depression. These statistics are from the Samaritans
In the UK, men are three times as likely to die by suicide than women. In the Republic of Ireland, the rate is four times higher among men than women.
You can read more about this here
