I’ve really enjoyed watching the latest series of “Cold Feet” on ITV on Monday nights, and this week’s sixth (and I presume last) episode finished in fine style.
Pete, played by John Thompson, hammering happily away on the drums as his teenage son’s band played “Teenage Kicks.”
No better song to be upbeat about as “Ah, Jimmy, Jimmy,” Nesbitt might have said.
It was certainly a cheery, even sentimental way to end the series which has been brilliant; interspersing the trials and tribulations of the group of friends with comedy.
Who would’ve expected David’s stint in prison to get a few laughs, the first time a spell inside has been funny since “Porridge.”

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It all came good in the end for drummer, Pete, who’d been suffering from depression. Earlier in the series, his good friend, Adam (played by our own TV star Nesbitt – James that is, not Mike) recognised the signs as his pal struggled with two jobs and an undiagnosed mental health problem. To compound this, his daughter Chloe’s biological father turned up, she appears to then reject Pete and his downward spiral ends in a dramatic scene where Pete drove to a cliff and appeared to take his own life.
But, actually, a pestering sales call from a mobile phone company of all things, brought him back from the brink, and it all ended happily ever after.
It’s great that such a marvellous programme of entertainment tackled the issue of depression; but, of course, not everything ends so well.
By coincidence (one assumes) Monday past was World Mental Health Day. Coverage of this has brought a welcome awareness of the need for society to pay attention to this increasingly common issue.
For example, in less than 15 years’ time, can you guess at current rates what the world’s leading illness will be?
Heart disease? Cancer?
No, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) “If we don’t act urgently, by 2030 depression will be the leading illness globally.”
In fact, they say that in the past week one in six adults had a common mental health problem – in the past week!
Our politicians at Stormont are often much-maligned, but they did highlight the issue this week with the message “Are you OK?” and indeed, there are many campaigns, such as the “It’s OK to not be OK” one, which attempt to waken us up to the issue that is all around us.
Decades of conflict and social problems in Northern Ireland have left us a terrible legacy of mental health issues; but, of course, there’s much, much more to it than that. The pressure of modern day life bring with it a harshness and uncaring atmosphere at times. As I wrote last week, people can be horrible to others.
Helping others through difficult times is a great thing to do. I know of an example of this close to home; you may have seen on television at the weekend, coverage of a balloon release by an organisation called Life After Loss. My own daughter, Helen was the prime mover in getting this charity formed some years ago after her baby, Samuel died. As she said in media interviews, this is a real help for those people going through such loss.
She revealed the shocking statistic that, on average, 24 families per day in Northern Ireland suffer the loss of a baby in pregnancy or as an infant.
Many more people with children feel the pressure of illness, or even simply struggling to cope.
Who knows what people are going through? The storyline of Pete in “Cold Feet” saw a man whose life actually wasn’t that bad, yet he quickly reached a tipping point. Something simple could be happening to someone around you; in fact, there may not even be a particular reason for them feeling low. People of all ages from teenagers with low self-esteem to the loneliness of the elderly without anyone to care for them are affected.

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This week a young man in Belfast received a nasty injury to the mouth; what did he do to warrant this? He saw a yob poking at a homeless man lying in a sleeping bag and calling him names, and simply said to the assailant: “leave him alone, mate.” For his trouble, the attacker turned on him.
I was disgusted and heartened by this in equal measure; disgusted, of course, at the violent man’s action for no reason, but heartened that a young man wouldn’t walk on by but chose to speak up.
It’s good that we go to the aid of someone in trouble being accosted. It’s good that we sympathise with people suffering from cancer or another physical illness and ask how they’re doing.
I wonder, though, if we do ask someone feeling down if they’re OK. Even a kind word can work wonders if we show we care.
Please keeping asking and looking out for people.
Indeed, sometimes we need to do more than simply just be aware of it. I’ve praised before the excellent work of journalist Kathryn Torney on the website www.thedetail.tv and this July she highlighted the high number of suicide deaths in Northern Ireland.
Last year, the loss of life was the highest ever since records began in 1970.
She found that despite over £7million being spent annually on suicide prevention, the equivalent of six people each week took their own lives in Northern Ireland last year, 19 per cent more than the previous year.
On one level we seem to be talking about the issues more, yet the figures continue to rise.
We need, of course, to keep talking about it, to keep asking people if they’re OK; and we need to be more aware of what we can do to help. The theme of this year’s WHO Mental Health Day is how to give “psychological first aid” and “support people can provide for those in distress.”
In other words, what can we say and DO to help.
Pete was fortunate to have supportive friends and family to help him.
In some cases, YOU could be that help to someone.