Noel Fitzpatrick to live-stream surgery and return with Supervet ER and podcast tour
Noel Fitzpatrick has announced a live-streamed operation next Tuesday, new Supervet ER episodes and a podcast tour that mixes pet stories with music.
How it was covered
- Channel 5 was the only channel found covering it.
- BBC News, BBC One, BBC Two, Channel 4, GB News, ITV and Sky News: not found in tracked broadcasts.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story. Facts only one channel reported are attributed to it.
Professor Noel Fitzpatrick, known as the Supervet, has announced a set of projects. They are:
- a live-streamed operation next Tuesday, 27th;
- fresh episodes of Supervet ER;
- a new podcast and a live tour with his band.
Fitzpatrick said it will be the first time in his life that he has done an operation live. He added that the plans had been examined on ethical and moral grounds beforehand and that everyone involved, including the dog and its owner, had been fully informed.
Alongside the live surgery, Fitzpatrick is returning with fresh episodes of Supervet ER and a new podcast. He is also touring with his band. In the tour, he combines stories about dogs, cats and other animals with music. He said Brian May persuaded him to learn guitar and that the show includes One Vision, the song May taught him. It also features Greatest Day by Take That. Fitzpatrick said the animal stories, which deal with love, hope and redemption, connect more readily when music is played between them.
He said he wants to spread love, hope and joy and described his approach as dreaming big, working hard and being kind. He recalled a 14-year-old girl at a recent show who was trembling and crying and told him it was the best night of her life after he told a story about a rabbit he had treated and played Greatest Day.
In a lighter anecdote, Fitzpatrick said he had auditioned in the 1990s for the Irish television show Ballykiss Angel and lost the role to Colin Farrell. He said a woman on Graham Norton's show later told Farrell that if it were not for him, her cat would not have been fixed. The cat was called Mr Kitty, and Farrell replied: "You're welcome."
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| Fitzpatrick is returning with new Supervet ER episodes, a podcast and a band tour. | |
| Fitzpatrick said the operation had been ethically and morally examined and that everyone involved was fully informed. | |
| Fitzpatrick will livestream a real-time operation on Tuesday the 27th. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
The channel treated the story as a warm promotional interview. It focused on the live operation, the Supervet ER return, the podcast and band tour, and personal stories about fans and a celebrity cat. The tone was light and celebratory, with little scrutiny of the live surgery beyond Fitzpatrick's own assurance that it had been ethically reviewed.
- “It is amazing, because most people love dogs and cats, and most people love music.”
- “for the first time in my life, I'm going to do it live.”
- “this is ethically and morally all examined beforehand, and everybody, including Mum of Doggie and Doggie, everybody involved is fully informed.”
Who was on air
People and organisations each channel put on air while covering this story. Channels' own presenters and reporters are not listed. Names as transcribed, and the list can miss people.
- 17:48 BST
Professor Noel Fitzpatrick, AKA the super-bet
5 News with Dan Walker · Fri 23 Oct
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.