Best known from TV’s The Supervet, Professor Noel Fitzpatrick takes to the road with a brand-new stage show in which he explains how caring for animals can help us heal...

In a tone that brooks no contradiction, Professor Noel Fitzpatrick - known to millions of TV viewers as The Supervet - asserts: “Animals make us better people in every conceivable way. I don't think that we can always be our true selves with humans.”
Noel, who is the director and managing clinician at Fitzpatrick Referrals in Surrey,  goes on to provide an example of this. “Imagine you've had a hard day at work, where your boss has been awful to you all day. Then you come home from work, and the neighbour who keeps dumping his grass cuttings on your side of the fence has parked his car right in front of your door. You're pretty narked off.

“You don't like your neighbour - whose name is Bob - anyway, and now he's parked his car right in front of your door for the 14th time; you've been counting. The chances of you forgiving Bob at this moment are exactly zero.
“You open the door of your house and you see your new £100 Nike trainers, torn to pieces, that your new puppy has chewed up, and you forgive him in exactly one nanosecond when he bounds towards you and greets you. And that is what animals teach us about life. They teach us the power of forgiveness and love.
“It's a good example because we all know people we bear a grudge against, for whatever reason, because we're human. But animals unlock unconditional love within us. Even though Freddy has just chewed up your new £100 trainers, you don't care. But if a human did that... Oh, my goodness! You'd be livid, maybe forever. 
“So, it is interesting. Animals uncork an ability within us to be ourselves and an ability to look beyond the facade that we put up for society every single day. They allow us to be ourselves, and therefore to be the best we can be.”

This is exactly the sort of story that Noel will be sharing in his live stage show, Beyond Supervet. Visiting the Midlands in November, Noel promises a show full of passion, poignancy and peerless humour; a show that offers loads of fun, as well as profound insights into what one of the world’s most acclaimed and beloved orthopaedic-neuro veterinary surgeons has gleaned from the thousands of animals he’s treated throughout his career.
Reaching beyond the world of TV’s The Supervet, which has been running for 18 series on Channel Four, Noel examines how caring for animals really can benefit us all, and how modern medicine can have a massive effect on our lives.
Drawing on the vivid narrative of his many books, he will be engrossing audiences with stories, anecdotes, and a visionary look at the future, all recounted to a potent soundtrack which underscores the immense role music plays in his life. 
The County Laois-born vet, who exudes charisma on stage thanks to years as a professional actor in shows such as London's Burning, Casualty, The Bill and Heartbeat (where he played - guess what? - a vet), reveals just how excited he is about hitting the road again. “I'm passionate about going on tour because there are so many things, hilariously funny and very sad and very real and very truthful, that I would like to share with everybody.”
In addition, Noel can't wait to engage with his wonderfully devoted fan base. “The main reason to do this is the connection with the audience. You can’t get that connection sitting on your own writing a book, but you can really bring the book to life on stage.”

Among the things Noel will be chatting about is his beloved dog Keira - who passed away in 2021. “She has basically taught me everything I know. I would be an empty vessel if she hadn't been there. 
“She's very much responsible for the building of my practice because she was by my side through all 14 years of that dream. She saw me in my truest raw sense. The show is centred around a dozen or so lessons that I've learned along the way from Keira and other animals.”  
On what he has learned from Keira, he says, “She has taught me humility, gratitude, and how to dream big. She very much inspired [the book] How Animals Make Us The Best We Can Be, which was about passion and thankfulness and openness and kindness and commitment and authenticity and creativity and, of course, love and hope. 
The live show also sees Noel extolling the redemptive joy of his work: “I see love, hope and redemption every single day in my consulting room. For example, you've caught me now just after a very difficult conversation. This morning, I had to euthanise a dog that I couldn't save because it just wasn't ethically right to do so. His owners were weeping tears onto my shoulder.
“One of them was a big burly bloke, who really only let their guard down with me. When they’ve turned into a blithering wreck in my arms, their partner will often say to me ‘Oh, my God! Frank has never shown that kind of emotion before in his entire life!’
“I don't think it's my cuddle that makes every grown man cry! It's just that I'm supporting them while their best friend is in need - and that unlocks the raw childhood need to love and be loved that’s in all of us. That's a miraculous thing which hopefully I'll bring to the stage.”
Above all, in Beyond Supervet, Noel is keen to accentuate the positive. “I also talk about the tough times, because I think it's important that we reflect on the fact that everybody has challenges. We're going through a world of war at the moment, but it's vital to look at the joy and the goodness and the love in the world. Yes, I talk about the darkness a bit in the show, but as an example of how you can find light.”
So what does Noel hope audiences will take away from Beyond Supervet? “I want people to go out feeling that they've gained an insight into something that they didn’t expect - a truly uplifting experience where they’ll feel enriched and entertained.
“The show is a smorgasbord of visual, auditory and stimulatory delights. By coming along and feeling that unconditional love wash over you, I guarantee you will walk out feeling a million percent better than when you walked in.” 

by James Rampton

Beyond Supervet: Noet Fitzpatrick visits Crewe Lyceum on Friday 10 November; Dudley Town Hall on Saturday 11 November and Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry on Friday 17 November