I CAN SEE WHEN DAD’S SLIPPING AWAY

In the new documentary, Joe gently confronts his father Gary, a former heroin addict, about all the times he’d said he was going to the shop for milk but vanished instead, sometimes for days or even weeks.

‘It was your code word for going to score some gear,’ says Joe, sounding heartbreakingly like the young boy he was then. ‘You never came back with milk. I just wanted to stop you going.’

His father is sincere in his repentance, saying, ‘I’m lucky you still talk to me. I thank God that we have what we have today. I need to stay clean so that your kids never have to see me like that.’

Father and son are close these days. ‘I’m more understanding of him as an addict now and I’m ready,’ Joe tells me. ‘My dad’s never relapsed on heroin, but he might have a little drink or a joint, and I can see when he’s slipping away, so I ring him up and I say, “Let’s go for a dinner. Let’s get the motorbikes out.” Because all he wants is love and connection. That’s all he needs. So, I’m quite good at that now.’