Alex Brooker: Disability and Me
DOCUMENTARY BBC2 HD, 9pm
The TV presenter confronts his disability, visiting key moments from his past and recalling happy and difficult memories.
Alex Brooker: Disability and Me Sunday, BBC2 HD, 9pm
THERE WAS A moment last summer when Alex Brooker was hit by a crushing reality. The comedian and presenter was preparing to swim the English Channel as part of a celebrity team raising money for Stand Up to Cancer, and undergoing training in Lake Windermere.
‘For the first time, I felt very disabled because my body just wouldn’t do what I needed it to. I was so frustrated and got really emotional’, says Brooker, best known as a regular on C4’s topical comedy show The Last Leg.
DENIAL
Born with hand, arm and leg disabilities, Brooker was13 months old when he had his right leg amputated. He says he has never let his disability define him, but that moment in Lake Windermere was a stark reminder of his limitations.
‘I realised that I’d been in denial about my disability. Doing the swim and also having my kids has made me really think about it properly,’ says
Brooker, who has two young children with his wife, Lynsey.
In this one-off documentary, the comedian and his mother, Elaine, revisit London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he underwent numerous operations.
‘It holds such intense memories,’ says Brooker, 36. ‘My mum was in tears before we even went in. As a kid, it was like my second home.’
DISCUSSIONS
He also meets other disabled people, like fellow Arsenal fan and dad-of-two Ly, who was paralysed as an adult, champion swimmer Susie Rodgers, and primary-school friend Andy, who was born with the spinal birth defect spina bifida.
‘It was lovely to talk about our views on disability and how it’s affected our lives,’ says Brooker, who worked on C4’s coverage of the Paralympics in 2012 and 2016. ‘I’m one of the few disabled people on TV, and I want to help others get a better understanding of what the reality is.’