The A Word

"The A Word" is a 6-part BBC One drama series about a messy, extended family with a child newly-diagnosed with autism at its center. It also is a drama about a family who cannot communicate – not because they are not as clever, articulate, or hilarious as most of us – but because there is a gulf between their deepest feelings and how they express those feelings. At the heart of the family, Alison and Paul Hughes, a mid-30s couple building a life for themselves and their two children: teenage daughter Rebecca and five-year-old son Joe – a beautiful, dreamy boy who never goes anywhere without his headphones. Joe lives in a routine world, set to a soundtrack of punk, new wave, and indie classics. Until the week he starts school, he is considered eccentric, maybe even a little anti-social, a little behind on the developmental checklists. When Alison’s brother Eddie and his wife Nicola return to the family home to rebuild their broken marriage, we find the first people brave – or tactless enough – to suggest that Joe’s problems run deeper. It is at that moment that Nicola says the unsayable. Maurice, the family patriarch, begins to express his misgivings about his grandson. In the weeks following his diagnosis, Joe’s character and autism magnify and exaggerate the tensions and faultlines that run throughout this multi-generational family as they struggle to adapt to the changes in their lives and, more importantly, try to learn to communicate. "The A Word" is an engaging, contemporary drama full of ideas – about parenthood, disability, about community. It is funny, audacious, raw, and innovative – and shines a light on this particular and unusual set of circumstances. It will universally appeal to anyone who has ever been driven crazy by their family.