WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER
Documentary
My Heart Belongs to Dad
9:00pm - 10:30pm
BBC2 London & South East
VIDEO Plus+: 8505
Subtitles, widescreen
This is one of those documentaries that just slightly opens up your view of the world. It tells three separate stories of families that have had to learn to function without mothers. Together, they movingly illustrate how fathers and children, using humour, tough love and dodgy cooking, learn to cope. Take John and Kelly from Walsall. When Kelly moved out, John was left to look after their three children. He seems like a top dad ("I'm hoping I'll be able to make a meal from what I've grabbed," he says cheerfully after a shopping trip), but watching him and the kids wrestle with the contradictions that swamp them is tough. Even tougher are the stories of two families where mums have died. Your heart goes out to them - as John tells his children at one point, "Empathy - empathy's the word."
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