SHED TALKS (Jeremy Thomas): Recent Episodes
SHED TALKS (Jeremy Thomas)
Shed Talks is a good humoured show about mental health and coping with life – what happens when things go wrong, and what you can do to get better and stay well.
Shed Talks is hosted by Jeremy Thomas – a funny guy with experience of serious mental illness, and an advocate of good mental health. Jeremy is going to be in conversation with interesting people drawn from the world of Film, TV, Music, Books, Crime, Gardening, and Business. Interesting people who have achieved something in their lives but who also have had direct or indirect experience of poor mental ill-health. By sharing their inside stories with Jeremy, guests will also reflect on personal survival techniques, demonstrating how they recovered from poor mental health and how they now stay sane.
Jeremy Thomas worked in the music business for 22 years during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. He worked with artists such as John Williams, Al Green, Camel, Caravan, U2, The Levellers, James Brown and Rupert Hine to name a few. He wrote his first novel “Taking Leave’ in 2007, a former BBC Radio 5 ‘Book of the Month”, going on to co-produce the Emmy Award-winning BBC documentary ‘Stephen Fry – The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive’ and co-write the popular- A-Z Guide to Good Mental Health with Dr Tony Hughes. His last novel was the crime thriller ‘The Santa Monica Suicide Club’ published in 2016.
Jeremy is now a leading speaker to schools and businesses, delivering talks on “How to Stay Sane in an Insane World’’. An authentic, brutally honest, and often humorous talk that draws on his own battle with bipolar disorder and addiction, providing coping skills and strategies based around a mental health tool kit.
For more Shed Talks information and mental health support visit our website or contact:- enquiries@jeremythomastalks.co.uk
In this episode one brave south London born lady growing up with her parents and 3 sisters discusses how a string of terrifying near death ordeals changed everything. The author of just published YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ENOUGH, she has come a long way since 13 years at Croydon High School. She has established a global network of Soulshine Rereats. She is also an inner transformation advisor and embodiment facilitator, 46 year old Soulla Demetriou admits "I don't know how many lives I have left but hopefully four!".
With over 15 years expereince, she has guided thousands, from high performing leaders to founders and famillies through deep inner work, integrating self compassion and nervous system regulation. Through her Soulshsine Retreats Soulla supports indivdiuals to transform their relationship with themselves as the foundation to how they live, lead and create.
Most people would feel lucky to have survived one near death experience, never mind beating the odds three times. Check out Soulla's Lifejacket choices to get a reall insight into her brave and cheerful character.
In this episode, Paul Sunderland downloads to Jeremy Thomas everything you always wanted to know about co-dependency but were afraid to ask.
Paul Sunderland is a highly accomplished addictions specialist and psychotherapist with over 40 years of experience.
He is also a lifelong fan of David Bowie and led Zeppelin.
He was the clinical director at Clouds House in the West Country and Cross Roads Addiction Recovery Centre, Antigua.
This is an educational podcast episode, inasmuch as Paul will speak about the hot topic of co-dependency.
He speaks candidly about what it is and what it isn’t. How people succumb to it.
The effects it has on people, particularly partners. .
What you can do about it.
From working-class beginnings to decades on stage and screen…
Actor and broadcaster Larry Lamb joins Jeremy Thomas for an open and reflective conversation about his career, creativity, and the realities of protecting mental health in a demanding industry.
Best known for his work across theatre, film and television, Larry talks candidly about longevity in acting, navigating personal and professional pressures, and the habits, mindset, and boundaries that help him stay grounded in an often chaotic world. He also reflects on identity, self-belief, and what he’s learned about resilience over the years.
A thoughtful discussion on performance, survival, and staying sane while living a very public life.
Find out more about podcasts, events, and more on the How to Stay Sane in an Insane World website: https://howtostaysaneinaninsaneworld.co.uk/
Welcome, Larry Lamb, best known for playing Mick Shipman in Gavin & Stacey, Archie Mitchell in EastEnders, and Ted Case in the final series of the BBC drama New Tricks.
In conversation with Jeremy Thomas, Larry delves into the impact his childhood experiences have had on his mental health. He reflects on how overcoming personal demons, such as stage fright and substance use, has been integral to his growth, both as a father, person and as a performer.
He joins Jeremy for a deep dive into his childhood, career, ambition and mental health. Topics covered include the childhood trauma of being abandoned at age nine by his mother, coping with a raging father, his success playing opposite the likes of Maggie Smith on Broadway and in the West End of London, and dealing with terrible stage fright. Ultimately, his search for a perfect relationship.
Larry displays huge courage and honesty throughout this episode. If you'd like to watch the episode, click here - and subscribe if you like it.
Larry has openly discussed his ongoing quest for the perfect relationship, a search often complicated by his tumultuous upbringing. He has faced and overcome struggles with alcohol, endured horrendous hangovers, and battled stage fright. His relationships with women have been numerous and, at times, unintentionally doomed, reflecting the complexities and difficulties that have shaped his personal journey.
Larry Lamb's career has been marked by both critical and popular success on stage and screen. His diverse roles, from beloved comedies to intense dramas, showcase his adaptability and talent as an actor. In addition, his ability to speak five languages highlights his broad interests and abilities beyond acting.
From the Hacienda Club all the way to the Riverside Studios cinema…
Filmmaker Carol Morley talks (Typist Artist Pirate King, The Falling, The Alcohol Years, and Dreams of a Life) with Jeremy Thomas about the effects of bereavement on her teenager, how she nearly lost everything, and 4 years of addictive mayhem at the Hacienda Club in Manchester. With resilience and courage, she tells us how she made it out of dodge city and into art school, and eventually became a successful filmmaker. Since then, she’s worked with Florence Pugh, Monica Dolan, Maisie Williams, Patricia Clarkson, James Khan, and many more.
What do Florence Pugh, Monica Dolan, Toby Jones, Patricia Clarkson, and James Caan all have in common? Answer: Carol Morley.
Born and raised in Stockport, Manchester, the youngest of three, Carol’s world was shattered by the tragic loss of her father. Grief hit hard. At just 11, she turned to books and booze, juggling life as her eccentric mother’s carer while throwing herself into a full-blown identity crisis—experimenting, rebelling, searching.
By 16, she found a kind of refuge in Tony Wilson's infamous Hacienda Club, where the music was loud, the nights were long, and self-medication was easy. Four years of wild living, booze, drugs, and reckless abandon pushed her to the edge—until a moment of clarity sent her fleeing to London.
What happened next? A First-Class degree from St Martin’s School of Art. A hard-fought climb into filmmaking. And an award-winning career working with some of the biggest names in the industry. Carol’s journey is one of chaos, creativity, and sheer determination.
Take a look at some of her work 👉 https://www.campfilms.co.uk/
BONUS EPISODE:
When life knocked him down, what kept Simon Woodroffe from sinking? In this bonus episode, the Yo! Sushi founder and Dragon’s Den star shares the unconventional lifelines—his "lifejackets"—that helped him stay afloat when he was stuck. From the adrenaline of mountaineering and sailing to the wisdom of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Spinal Tap, and the unexpected lessons from Clarkson’s Farm and The Crown, Simon unpacks the action, adventure, and mindset shifts that shaped his resilience.
At seven, he was sent away to boarding school, where abuse, fear, and loneliness shaped his early years. By his thirties, Simon Woodroffe masked the pain with bravado, drink, drugs, and a fast life that landed him briefly behind bars. But his story doesn’t end there.
From rock-bottom to rock stages—designing for George Michael, Fleetwood Mac, and Rod Stewart—Simon turned his life around through 12-Step recovery, self-help, and a belief in pushing boundaries. He became a TV dragon on Dragon’s Den, launched the Yo! Sushi empire and is a relentless champion of stepping outside your comfort zone.
Generous, courageous, and always shooting straight from the hip—practical, fearless, and undeniably inspirational.
Rachel Jones is the editor of Toes in the Water: Stories of lives changed by wild swimming
talks about the good and the bad times and how swimming in cold wild water has transformed her and other people's lives for the better. She highlights a sense of community, trauma, divorce, self-discipline, self-regulation, resilience, coeliac disease/autoimmune disease, happiness, kindness, autism and ADHD. Discusses being an SEN teacher at King Edward's School Southampton.
Paul Unwin is the co-creator of huge hit TV show 'Casualty' with best friend Jeremy Brock, was the artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, and collaborator and good friend of playwright Arthur Miller, to name a few accolades. He talks about the traumatic turning point of his life at the young age of 19, therapy and later EMDR, survivor's guilt. His ethos is "Don't live with regret, don't live with fear".Paul also talks about his recent West End play 'The Enfield Haunting', as well as his new play, ‘The Promise’, about the birth of the NHS.Paul has two children and a wife called Kate who he thinks of as his ‘very best friend’. Both his parents were in the diplomatic service, his father was an ambassador, his mother, interestingly, was a German Jew who managed to escape to England in 1938 from the Nazis. Paul’s other best friend is his dog, who he refuses to call a pet.
New to 2024: SHED CHATS
Shed Chats are briefer conversations with interesting people - not specifically to do with mental health, but fascinating topics nonetheless.
Self-effacing Harvey Lisberg talks about making his own luck, His wild life in the music business, meeting Elvis, Colonel Parker, playing on the same bill as the Stones. What it was like to be in the fast lane in Manchester and the North, London and New York. and on being a self confessed gambler. Graham Gouldman, Peter Noone, Herman's Hermits and 10CC How he met his wife, Carol and how she changed his life for the steadier and much better. His time with Danny Batesh at Kennedy Street . The importance of family then and now.
Music biographer, reviewer, and co-founder of elvinyl.com Richard Morton Jack joins host Jeremy Thomas to discuss 'Nick Drake: The Life' and much more.Many people thought that Nick Drake was going to be hugely successful in the 1970s. His three albums were all critically acclaimed, yet did not sell. Tragically, he took his own life when he was 26. However, ever since his death, his popularity has continually increased throughout the world. This episode sets the record straight on unanswered questions about Nick Drake’s private life and his demise. Was it possible he had severe depression or schizophrenia? Was it possible he was going to marry someone? What would have happened to his mental health had he been alive today?Thanks to the unfettered access to private correspondence, tapes, university friends, family friends, and female acquaintances, Richard Morton Jack sympathetically but objectively unveils Nick Drake's private life, medical history and much more.
Jan Ravens did not enjoy her childhood, did not like being teased about her father . Did not like feeling such a powerless child. Jan talks about how being ill, causing a serious weight loss and his made her the most popular gal down at the disco. How this and impersonating teachers to her fellow pupils gave her some much needed power. She talks of some good times laughing at comedy TV with her father and trying to be sympathetic about her angry mother. How her father was baffled and defeated by life. She describes many poignant and awkward aspects of the effects on the family that her father's illness trig How local Glenda Jackson was a major inspiration. Ferociously bright, Jan got to Cambridge University, took a deep breath and dived into the world of the Footlights. Her achievements include winning the big Award at the Edinburgh Festival. Going on to work in Spitting Image, the RSC, Strictly, she felt the fear and did it anyway. What drove her on and what keeps her afloat?
Ambassador to Bipolar UK, animal lover, Nicky Chinn waited nearly many years to discover the best ways to stay sane.
Alongside his songwriter partner Mike Chapman, Nicky enjoyed huge success around he world, including wining three Ivor Novello awards. Acts like Sweet, Mud, Racey, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Toni Basil, Tina Turner and Huey Lewis.
Nicky also talks about the terrifying treatment he received for severe depression and bipolar disorder he suffered aged just 16 and how this repeated and the subsequent multiple hospitalisations he experienced throughout his life. He talks about how alcoholism ruined the life of a singer of one of their biggest acts. There is also humour throughout such as when he tried to buy two Rolls Royce during the same day and transforming his bathroom into a discotheque complete with rollerball, then bought the Hollywood actor, Paul Newman's massive house. Asked for a possible overall trigger, Nicky points a finger at the abandonment he felt not knowing his parents but brought up by a nanny instead- and sent away to school aged six. Friendship became all important, one with pop supremo, Mickie Most. Despite some set backs in the early 90's, 1995 proved to be a massive turning point towards lasting happiness- four things happened: . A serious change in medication, the unconditional love of a German Shepherd dog, most importantly two new forms of therapy and meeting someone very special on a blind date changed his life for very much better.
We are currently refurbishing the Shed but will be back on the air mid April. Meanwhile do listen to any eps you may have missed or want to listen again!
All 13 episodes of Shed Talks have been recorded by Jeremy Thomas in his own private shed. The site IS undergoing some repairs but will be back with a bang in mid April.
Although not an actor like Geoffrey Rush, Danny Evans has several things in common with the movie Shine.. A child prodigy, student of The Royal College of Music he was set to become a concert pianist, performing all over the world. That is until his violent father and a serious back injury caused him to stop. Danny talks about disappointment, then becoming highly successful in the classical music business, rubbing shoulder with famous players like Lang Lang.. Danny then describes intense work pressure, living in Berlin, New York, then Paris. Danny talks about some exciting and terrifying relationships with women and how his moods and thoughts began turning psycho helter-skelter. Welcome to Bipolar, Paranoia and Destruction. ..and Love rescues all?
Tim Lott talks flexi pop, a train journey with David Bowie, severe depression, growing up in a working class family, the ups and downs of medication, how ADHD made sense of past actions, bad acid trips, the importance of tennis, the music of Gillian Welch, the challenge of being a parent to four daughters, why he thought Mike Leigh was faking it, and his passion for cheesy musicals. How the tragedy surrounding his Mother was instrumental in him becoming an award winning writer and being a top writer's boot camp mentor: timlott.substack.com
AL Kennedy is a successful playwright, broadcaster, stand up, Guardian blogger but best known for her nine undisputedly dark, emotionally intelligent award winning novels, She is well known for not suffering fools, However, in person, wearing her bright yellow lifejacket, Alison Kennedy is less frightening to meet than you might think. She kindly paddled from Essex to Somerset and moored her beloved Kayak outside the Shed not for so much as a Shed Talk than a wee shed chat.
Nathan Horrocks has jumped many fences in his life, both literal and metaphorical. Raised in Yorkshire and Kenya, he talks candidly about traumatic events including being separated from his mother while a small child and then reconciling with her 25 years later. He lifts the lid on what it is really like to be a professional jockey. How he loves the movie 'Good Will Hunting' and ended up living in California, happily married, and making award-winning documentary films about horses.
Ian Rankin spills the beans about his mental health and allows us to see behind the creator of those 23 Inspector Rebus crime novels. Born on the tough side of Fife, he came up the hard way but credits his elder sister for encouraging him to write his thoughts into diaries. To understand him, you need to know that Edinburgh is his capital, and since 1986 he has had the same bride. That he was a member of two punk rock bands called The Dancing Pigs and the New Germs. Proud father of two sons, His rise to fame has not been an easy ride. His seriously ill son and financial insecurity triggered many terrifying dark nights of the soul. Now a wealthy man, he sticks to his mates, still supports old musical guns such as The Who but also much lesser-known unfashionable acts like Alex Harvey and Jackie Leven. His choice of lifejackets is loyal and eclectic. From Blackadder to Brian Eno's Music for Airports.
Which book has Ian Rankin read over 20 times? Special outtake :-
https://youtu.be/Bd5WH0EvOZM
Gordon a multilingual journalist talks about being an only child, Autism, Withnail & I, Scotland, the great Hiroshi Murakami, loneliness, James Joyce, meeting the Dutch love of his life aged 18, getting married, Stress, Bladerunner, having two kids diagnosed with autism, the healing power of running, Breaking Bad, Our Friends in the North, New Order. What happened when his wife, aged 36 years, received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. How the hell did he cope?
Dick Moore hated school so badly, he faked appendicitis. At odds with a sadistic headteacher, his depression and anxiety were very real. An immense ability n the rugby field kept him afloat. Fast forward to university, Dick became a teacher. He then married and within 5 years was the youngest prep school headmaster in the country. He occupied that position for 22 years and had four children. In 2011, his third son Barney took his own life. This episode is about that, and much more.
Shed Talks’ very own psychologist Karen Cowan, switches to the hot seat and bears all for this extended edition. She talks candidly about growing up with aristocratic heroin and alcohol addicted parents, amidst great wealth but amidst fear, anxiety and bad asthma- never feeling safe. How protecting her younger sister helped her deal with her father’s imprisonment and her mother's many hospitalisations due to alcoholism and bipolar not forgetting the consequences of forbidden love. Ultimately how Karen's marriage to film producer Paul Cowan – Crying Game, The Krays and Dance with a Stranger saved her life.
Mike Fisher, the brains behind BAAM and one of the leading experts in anger management. Mike talks about growing up under the Apartheid system in South Africa. rage, cats, imploding, heartbreak and betrayal, supporting Arsenal and Barcelona FC simultaneously.
Charming as her famous great aunt, Audrey Hepburn, Roma Hooper has spent her life helping others. A tragedy in her childhood had a lasting effect on her mental health. She has used this experience to support many others and, in particular, young offenders in prison. Which led her to set up the highly successful Prison Radio Service. She received the OBE in 2017.
This poem helped Tim Clark and David Enthoven decide to offer Robbie Williams a serious management contract. It's written by Robbie Williams about a former schoolteacher of Robbie's and is definetely not complementary. Check out what Tim Clark has to say about the scene that unfolded the first time they visited Robbie's flat.
Disgruntled old Etonian, international HGV driver, serial depressive, officer in the Coldstream Guards, oil rig worker and latterly fine art collector, Charlie Mortimer has considerable life experience. Being addicted to heroin, cocaine, dexedrine, painkillers and alcohol, deep down he led a largely unhappy life until his mid fifties when things took a great turn for the better.
Veteran music biz manager, Tim Clark spills the beans to JT about growing up in Africa with his missionary parents. Running Island Records, King Crimson, Nick Drake, Paul Kossoff, Bob Marley, Bryan Ferry. Insight into his legendary partner, David Enthoven's recovery from heroin, cocaine, and alcohol addiction. How they took Robbie to the top and how Tim just about remained sane throughout.