AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me)
The A Word writer hopes autism drama will help viewers AND the Government understand condition better
Peter Bowker spent 14 years working with special needs children and was determined to ensure the show gives an accurate picture of living with the condition
Max Vento, aged six, plays autistic Joe Hughes in the new BBC drama The A Word
A new BBC drama about a family struggling to cope with autism was a deeply personal experience for its creator Peter Bowker.
He spent 14 years working with special needs children and was determined to ensure that The A Word gives an accurate picture of life with the mental condition.
He also knows that his decision to cast a non-autistic actor in the lead role may be questioned by some.
The six-part series starts on Tuesday and tells the story of five-year-old Joe, who does not fit in with children his age.
Joe would rather shut himself away and listen to music than play with other kids.
He is showing typical autistic behaviour – problems forming relationships and communicating with people.
The drama centres around the reactions to Joe’s diagnosis by his mother Alison, played by Granchester’s Morven Christie, his father Paul, played by Inspector George Gently star Lee Ingleby, and his grandfather Maurice, played by the former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston .
Alison is determined that he will not be treated differently to other youngsters, while the two men realise that Joe is a unique character.
Christopher Eccleston and Morven Christie with Max
All three find themselves in a situation that threatens to expose strains in their relationships.
Autism affects 30,000 people in the UK and Bowker, 57, wanted The A Word to reflect their experiences. But he chose talented six-year-old actor Max Vento, who is not autistic, to play Joe.
Bowker, who won a Bafta for the BBC2 special needs drama Marvellous, explained: “I have always been committed to casting people with disabilities to play characters with disabilities.
“But it was too big an ask for a six-year-old on the autistic spectrum to imitate a whole range of emotions in keeping with the piece. By definition they have difficulty processing and imitating.”
He was also keen that Max did not try to merely copy someone with autism.
Bowker told the Sunday People : “I didn’t want to open up the possibility that he would do an impersonation, so I didn’t introduce him to lots of autistic children.
“Instead we just talked things through. We’d say, ‘Max wouldn’t have a problem doing this but Joe would.’ He kind of got that. Then we had words, like ‘Dreamy’ and Max would have that faraway look.”
In writing the series, he tried to make Joe someone with autism in the middle of the spectrum, the most common form, rather than over-dramatise it.
He said: “A lot of people might think autism is like Rain Man. There is a tendency around disability to show something extreme.
"I wanted people to realise that Joe is more typical of autism than a lot of more dramatic representations.
“I’m not interested in making a drama that’s so painful it’s unwatchable.”
Viewers will also see veteran actor Christopher Eccleston in a new role.
His character Maurice has a dead-pan humour that often lightens the mood. But being funny did not come naturally.
He admitted: “I haven’t been in a great deal of comedy dramas. I do more intense drama, so it has been a challenge. There are comic lines in this script but, if you play them as comedy, they’re not funny.”
Writer Peter Bowker drew on hos own experiences of working with special needs children
At the heart of The A Word lie Bowker’s life experiences. He left Leeds University in 1981 and started working with people suffering severe learning difficulties.
He recalled: “I worked with a lot of people who had ‘challenging behaviour’, a euphemism for ‘They’re going to hit you with a chair leg’. There were some fairly distressed people who would be violent, or scratch and bite.
“But I loved their warmth, their lack of agenda, their conversations. And again and again I saw parents split up. The strain and worry of having severely disabled children exposed fault lines in their marriages.”
The six-week drama, set in the Lake District, is bound to trigger a debate around disability.
Bowker hopes for a more open-minded attitude, noting that being on benefits now often attracts suspicion.
He added: “It’s a family drama, not a campaign piece. But the budget cuts to disability allowances are disastrous. The impact will be huge.”
SOURCE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/word-writer-hopes-autism-drama-7591836
The A Word writer hopes autism drama will help viewers AND the Government understand condition better
Peter Bowker spent 14 years working with special needs children and was determined to ensure the show gives an accurate picture of living with the condition
Max Vento, aged six, plays autistic Joe Hughes in the new BBC drama The A Word
A new BBC drama about a family struggling to cope with autism was a deeply personal experience for its creator Peter Bowker.
He spent 14 years working with special needs children and was determined to ensure that The A Word gives an accurate picture of life with the mental condition.
He also knows that his decision to cast a non-autistic actor in the lead role may be questioned by some.
The six-part series starts on Tuesday and tells the story of five-year-old Joe, who does not fit in with children his age.
Joe would rather shut himself away and listen to music than play with other kids.
He is showing typical autistic behaviour – problems forming relationships and communicating with people.
The drama centres around the reactions to Joe’s diagnosis by his mother Alison, played by Granchester’s Morven Christie, his father Paul, played by Inspector George Gently star Lee Ingleby, and his grandfather Maurice, played by the former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston .
Alison is determined that he will not be treated differently to other youngsters, while the two men realise that Joe is a unique character.
Christopher Eccleston and Morven Christie with Max
All three find themselves in a situation that threatens to expose strains in their relationships.
Autism affects 30,000 people in the UK and Bowker, 57, wanted The A Word to reflect their experiences. But he chose talented six-year-old actor Max Vento, who is not autistic, to play Joe.
Bowker, who won a Bafta for the BBC2 special needs drama Marvellous, explained: “I have always been committed to casting people with disabilities to play characters with disabilities.
“But it was too big an ask for a six-year-old on the autistic spectrum to imitate a whole range of emotions in keeping with the piece. By definition they have difficulty processing and imitating.”
He was also keen that Max did not try to merely copy someone with autism.
Bowker told the Sunday People : “I didn’t want to open up the possibility that he would do an impersonation, so I didn’t introduce him to lots of autistic children.
“Instead we just talked things through. We’d say, ‘Max wouldn’t have a problem doing this but Joe would.’ He kind of got that. Then we had words, like ‘Dreamy’ and Max would have that faraway look.”
In writing the series, he tried to make Joe someone with autism in the middle of the spectrum, the most common form, rather than over-dramatise it.
He said: “A lot of people might think autism is like Rain Man. There is a tendency around disability to show something extreme.
"I wanted people to realise that Joe is more typical of autism than a lot of more dramatic representations.
“I’m not interested in making a drama that’s so painful it’s unwatchable.”
Viewers will also see veteran actor Christopher Eccleston in a new role.
His character Maurice has a dead-pan humour that often lightens the mood. But being funny did not come naturally.
He admitted: “I haven’t been in a great deal of comedy dramas. I do more intense drama, so it has been a challenge. There are comic lines in this script but, if you play them as comedy, they’re not funny.”
Writer Peter Bowker drew on hos own experiences of working with special needs children
At the heart of The A Word lie Bowker’s life experiences. He left Leeds University in 1981 and started working with people suffering severe learning difficulties.
He recalled: “I worked with a lot of people who had ‘challenging behaviour’, a euphemism for ‘They’re going to hit you with a chair leg’. There were some fairly distressed people who would be violent, or scratch and bite.
“But I loved their warmth, their lack of agenda, their conversations. And again and again I saw parents split up. The strain and worry of having severely disabled children exposed fault lines in their marriages.”
The six-week drama, set in the Lake District, is bound to trigger a debate around disability.
Bowker hopes for a more open-minded attitude, noting that being on benefits now often attracts suspicion.
He added: “It’s a family drama, not a campaign piece. But the budget cuts to disability allowances are disastrous. The impact will be huge.”
SOURCE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/word-writer-hopes-autism-drama-7591836
