BBC1 ::::::::::::::::The A WORD:::::::::::::::::::::::

[RTKangaMummy]

I think this is going to be good

www.radiotimes.com/episode/d2ycmd/the-a-word--series-1-episode-1

Five-year-old Joe is a smart, musical kid. He spends his time with headphones on listening to alt-rock classics and knowing every line of the lyrics. He can be a bit quiet and uncooperative but nothing that overly troubles his parents – or at least, nothing they’ll admit to…

As we meet Joe and his clan in Peter Bowker’s well-worked drama (adapted from an Israeli series) it is the day of Joe’s birthday. Around him a wider family battle simmers nicely as Joe’s interfering grandfather (Christopher Eccleston) and humiliated uncle strike sparks off each other.

That domestic cut-and-thrust might be enough in itself, but we know the real driver of the story will be Joe’s condition. It’s only the slightest of spoilers to reveal that, as the title hints heavily, Joe has autism. His grandfather’s attitude is old school: “If there’s a problem with my grandson, we need to get it fixed.” It won’t be that simple.

ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME
1/6. New series. The various generations of the Hughes family, who all love, work and fight like any other clan, find they must learn to communicate all over again when the youngest member is diagnosed with autism. The opening episode of the drama sees the extended family reunite in the Lake District for Joe's fifth birthday party, but tensions soon rise among Alison, Paul and patriarch Maurice. Starring Morven Christie, Lee Ingleby and Christopher Eccleston.

CAST AND CREW

CAST
Alison Hughes Morven Christie
Paul Hughes Lee Ingleby
Eddie Scott Greg McHugh
Nicola Daniels Vinette Robinson
Joe Hughes Max Vento
Rebecca Hughes Molly Wright
Maurice Scott Christopher Eccleston
David Nowak Adam Wittek
Pavel Kaminski Tommie Grabiec
Linda Michelle Tate
Jane Joanna Bond
Sea Lily Verity Henry
Ralph Wilson Leon Harrop
Louise Wilson Pooky Quesnel
Martha Catherine Kinsella
Terry George Bukhari
Dr Eshell Siri Ellis
Dr Waite Mina Anwar
Receptionist Denice Hope
Dr Graves Daniel CerqueiraCREW
Director Peter Cattaneo
Executive Producer Patrick Spence
Producer Marcus Wilson
Writer Peter Bowker

And the lazy stereotype of the fussy mum with the kid with allergies.
And the uncle!!!!! As if.

I have also never heard teenagers talk like this.

And where is Christopher eccleston?

This is awful! Gay best friend ?

It is all a bit odd, I didn't understand why they would think a sleepover is a good idea either, they also didn't make it clear that the other boys had been collected!

I do think the little boy who plays Joe is a good little actor though.

I really like Christopher Eccleston, when he started crying in the car it was really well done.

My DS, 19, popped his head round the door tonight and said, "Are you still watching that series"......I'm too far in to just give up. I'm not really enjoying it. I thought tonight that the Mum was going to say that Joe was cured. I'm just bored with it now.

Yes sleepover was weird

Another one here who won't give up, despite it getting worse. I'm assuming Paul will find the discarded morning after pill packaging next week and there'll be another argument.

The bit where she got emotional at him showing empathy was good, I went through that.

And then they took it to an extreme :-(

Next weeks looks a little more soapy too. I'm quite enjoying it as light watching now

I thought the mum might get the idea of trying gluten-free from the other kid. I've never heard of the Fever Effect but it did remind me of The Great Secretin Rush that we lived through

I thought that there was going to be a gluten free/autism link too.

I was only half watching, and assumed that when gluten free was readily available (why?!) that it was going to be shown as a weird, 'grasping at cures' intervention. And then Joe was sick, and I thought 'here we go', but they seem to have missed that opportunity to dismiss an intervention!

There were some bits which were better this week - at least the morning walk was seen as bonkers by someone at last

I've never heard of the Fever Effect as a Thing either.

Dd1 has had some more lucid moments when ill, I'm sure, but she has also had more lucid moments at other times too. Can't say I've particularly noticed a Fever Effect.

The polish babysitter shouting at concerned driver was annoying. Do they really expect people to walk past an unaccompanied 5 year old in the middle of a 60mph road ?
Agree sleepover with 2 kids bonkers. They would probably just ignore Joe and play together and start crying for parents. 1 friend round for tea more sensible. Also if this is present day surprised the photos are in an album. For 10 years ours have been on computer or CD

It seems to force the characters into doing things and saying things out of character in order to move the plot along - eg. I thought they had big financial worries and yet suddenly he wants a baby - where did that come from? - and yes, the sleepover - why???!!!

I also found the stereotyping and sneering at the allergies mum quite horrible (not just because I'm gluten free (coeliac) :))

I like Rebecca though. Lovely girl.

Yy re: photos, although I do have a number of albums and loose photos knocking about - all made up/printed specifically to target language issues

It is something my dd1 really responded to, and so we have multiple albums made up of family members/various occasions for her.

In fact, we still make up holiday albums/scrapbooks - I get the dc to draw/write something while we are eg at a cafe waiting for lunch, and then stick it all together along with some more cohesive bits from me and photos - dd1 (and dd2 and ds, actually) loves them and often chooses past ones as bedtime stories

I think the mum needs a hobby or interest to stop her fussing over Joe all the time. Another baby is a mad idea but dad seems spectacularly useless. I don't see why CE thinks he can run a restaurant. He's portrayed as useless at business and isn't intending to be the chef so which bit of running the restaurant is he good at? Maybe the mum can make the restaurant her project too. She never seems to go to her job and obviously doesn't find it challenging

I think that the writer or the producers decided to chuck everything at this - its not a soap but has that kind of feel to it. I was hoping it would inform me more about Autism and how parents deal with the authorities for the right kind of care. It was mentioned last night at the school, but not in any great detail. Paul seemed to drop the other school idea really quickly too and having another child too? madness surely, she ignores the older girl as it is! what happened to the children at the sleepover too? it started well and seems to have lost its way a bit. Its a shame but will still stick with it, if only to see how it ends! ( lovely restaurant too, very classy)

We have noticed the fever effect with our DD. She is much calmer and when she was younger her language would be much more considered and clear. It is less noticable now she is older. I am glad they showed this.

I am still enjoying it. Trying to see it as more of a drama rather than an informative docu-drama on autism. I am still fed up of all the shagging though (i see the SIL managed to keep her knickers on in this episode!)

I know the actor who played the TA - she is lovely! - good to see her telling the mother to back off!!

not sure why Joe is allowed to walk around alone, he is only 5 ffs! I would imagine its a bit more dangerous too as its more remote ! but I have always lived in towns and cities so could be wrong and this is just what happens. maybe it isn't as far away as I think too?

Any distance is too far for a 5 year old, surely?

Especially one who cannot cope if anything changes in the routine, and cannot deal with even the simplest of social interactions.

The most unbelievable thing about this series so far is he continued calm acceptance of Joe's wanderings. None of the adults involved with him (close family, wider family, and now casual outside workers too) think there is anything wrong at all with a small child wandering down the middle of a road in the middle of nowhere. Repeatedly. It beggars belief, tbh.

Yes, were they trying to say the driver, who could have knocked him down, was so in the wrong for taking an interest in why a tiny kid is walking alone in the middle of a remote road?

yes, it doesn't seem right at all. maybe in the original version they had this going on so they decided to keep it in or something wacky like that? who knows.

I liked the soapy element in the first couple of episodes but the writer has cranked up the sex to the extent that it now feels like a lazy way to create drama.

Maybe the morning wandering is to show off the scenery?