Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Lighter Side

  • An NHS Paramedic's Selection of Humorous Mess Room Tales
  • By: Andy Thompson
  • Narrated by: Pete Nottage
  • Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (76 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Lighter Side cover art

The Lighter Side

By: Andy Thompson
Narrated by: Pete Nottage
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £5.81

Buy Now for £5.81

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Dark Side cover art
The Complete Blood Sweat and Tea cover art
999 cover art
Catch Your Breath cover art
Gas Man cover art
34 Patients cover art
Is There a Doctor Here?: An Omnibus cover art
Preserving Patients cover art
Undoctored cover art
Holiday SOS cover art
Confessions of a GP cover art
First, Do No Harm cover art
Angels on the Night Shift cover art
The Secret Doctor cover art
The Doctor Will See You Now cover art
The Heathrow Doctor cover art

Summary

From the paramedic pondering a dignified solution as he surveys his previously digested Pot Noodle adorning the naked genitalia of a recently deceased lady, to the man who rang the doctor Out of Hours service with an audibly severe case of excess flatulence, with hilarious consequences, and the old lady's wig that caused one chuckling paramedic to struggle to keep a hold of the carry-chair, The Lighter Side - An NHS Paramedic's Selection of Humorous Mess Room Tales will have you laughing out loud then looking around furtively, wondering if you should!

In his The Dark Side series, Andy Thompson gives us a taste of the dark sense of humor paramedics use as a coping mechanism; here he packs laugh-out-loud moments into every word as he recalls health care professionals' encounters with the weirdest of behavior, hilarious misunderstandings, and cringingly embarrassing episodes. You'll soon be relating to the sense of humor that moves an ambulance driver to respond to his friend and fellow paramedic's predicament on a hot summer's day, as a powerful smell engulfs the saloon of the vehicle. What would you do? Open the cab windows and the hatch through to the saloon to provide some extra ventilation? Of course not! You switch the heating on, causing the already intolerable pong to become even more unbearable, making for a bangin' mess room tale on your later return!

This book is an eye-watering insight into the Lighter Side of working on the Dark Side, straight from the mess rooms of ambulance stations up and down the UK. There's also a heartening reminder of the power of a flamin' good belly laugh and its analgesic effect even in situations of severe pain. This is a book that laughs in the face of extreme emotion and stress. Outrageous? Perhaps. Distasteful? Probably. Humorous? Absolutely!

©2016 Andy Thompson (P)2016 Andy Thompson

What listeners say about The Lighter Side

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    40
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    37
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Beyond distasteful; not funny

What disappointed you about The Lighter Side?

This book dutifully warned of occasionally offensive anecdotes and gave several disclaimers about the author's - and wider healthcare profession's - use of black humour as a means to cope with the horrific nature of the job. As a mental health nurse in a busy NHS hospital, black humour does not upset or bother me in the slightest; in fact I was looking forward to it! However the anecdote about the man calling for help as he hanged himself and then being found dead the next day just wasn't funny whatsoever. I was disgusted and stopped listening at that point. There is humour to be found everywhere if you look hard enough, even in suicide, but this book utterly failed to find or portray it.

Would you ever listen to anything by Andy Thompson again?

No, this put me off the author entirely.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was sometimes a little slow and expressionless for what was intended to be a humorous book. Overall thought it wasn't bad.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Repetitive following The Dark side 1 & 2

Was quite good but at least 4 of the stories had featured in The Dark Side 1 or 2

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Oh dear

Overall 2/5

Why didn't the author read his previous books before writing this? He repeats some stories already told about three or four times. On the whole, it's a bit better than the previous two books, it doesn't sound quite so much as a court of law.

Performance 2/5

Same narrator, same problem - too fast.

Story 2/5

I'd have given this a higher rating if not for the repetitions of stories.

On the whole, I'd suggest giving the whole series a miss.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome

Hilarious feels like your with them on every call out cant wait to listen to the dark side 2 can't stop listening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Waste of time

What disappointed you about The Lighter Side?

Sample only slightly funny bit.

What was most disappointing about Andy Thompson’s story?

all of it apart from the sample.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Lighter Side?

95% of it.

Any additional comments?

Listen to the sample, then forget it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Funny

Lovely to listen to something funny for a change when paramedics jobs are so intense.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

histerical

i found this book very amusing antidotes, loved it all, definatly had tears streaming down my face.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Narrator too dry and robotic

Narrator's voice was too much of a monotone to bother listening past the first story so I'll be returning it. Would have been much funnier with a different actor.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hilarious

Absolutely brilliant, could not stop laughing. Definitely a must buy if you're a paramedic or even if your not

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!