A joy to listen and learn

PEOPLE are always going on “journeys” in TV programmes. To complain about this is like complaining that the boy has to meet the girl then lose her in order to find her again. How do you make a factual look at someone’s life into a story with a start and an end? Some of these TV-created “journeys” are pretty flimsy but there’s nothing like a genuine one to make us appreciate the format. EXTRAORDINARY TEENS: SCHOOL OF LIFE AND DEAF (C4) took us into the lives of three young people at Mary Hare School in Berkshire.

Preparing for GCSEs, running for head boy, messing about in class, in many ways this was a typical snapshot of teenage school life. All 200 pupils at the school are deaf but as we discovered, in very different ways. Lewis had been profoundly deaf since birth. He communicated by sign language and found it difficult to make himself understood by any other means.

All that was set to change, though, as he awaited the second stage of a cochlear implant procedure. Twins Fae and Mae had already had it and moved to the school from a mainstream one three years ago. They spoke clearly but got by with lip reading and, more importantly, by relying on each other. Like all teenagers they wanted to leave school and move out into the world. They feared it as well, though, especially if it meant being separated from each other.

Andrew, meanwhile, was a Jacob Rees-Mogg in the making. Aloof, prickly and old before his time, he wanted to run for head boy but knew that he wasn’t popular. It stemmed, his mum said, from how he’d become deaf and coped with it.

He’d lost his hearing suddenly, aged four, following meningitis. He used hearing aids now but had never learned sign language, something that set him apart from most at Mary Hare.

He took the brave and honest step of mentioning this in his election speech. He wanted a second chance, he told his schoolmates, to get things right.

This was no Hollywood movie and Andrew didn’t get the coveted head boy role. He did, however, start to change minds, both his and others. Of all journeys, though, Andrew’s had the most highs and lows.

Some people experience a magical first moment of hearing as their implants are switched on. Andrew didn’t. There was progress, but it took months and lots of hard work. His spirits bruised, he went off the rails, the anger in him boiling over. Gradually, though, he learnt to appreciate each small step forward, and we, too, could see and hear it as his speech improved.

I’m not sure ultimately which was the more heart-warming end scene. It was great to see Lewis appreciating birdsong but him buying a rail ticket to Paddington was the real tear-jerker.

AMAZING SPACES SNOW AND ICE SPECIAL (C4) took us to Norway which was a treat. Stuck here in London, I’ll stake a quid on my Christmas being wet and uncomfortably warm, just like the last four. As well as the snow, ice and reindeer, there’s an abundance of Norwegian wood in Norway but last night wasn’t all log cabins.

One amazing space was built inside an oil drum. Better than that, near the Arctic Circle, there was a cosy cottage made of mud and straw, encased in a glass dome.

It was so warm inside that the occupants were growing fruit and veg. Handy when your nearest supermarket is nine hours away by husky.