John’s love for his deaf son is loud and clear, even with the dad jokes

Every dad wants to be Bob the Builder. Can we fix it? Of course we can — or else what’s the point of us? Comedian John Bishop’s first instinct, when his son Joe woke up suddenly deaf one Christmas morning aged 15, was to find a fix. The teenager was suffering from a virus that triggered a rare auto-immune disorder, Cogan’s syndrome.

A dozen years later, speaking about his condition for the first time in John And Joe Bishop: Life After Deaf (ITv), the whole family is still coming to terms with his deafness.

John, whose comedy act draws heavily on his personal life, has made documentaries before about private problems such as his struggles with dyslexia.

But, like most men, he doesn’t dwell on his emotions, let alone express them, unless he’s projecting them onto a convenient surrogate — for instance, his 2020 film about finding a new home for two captive beluga whales in China.

Getting tearful about animals is far easier than coping with the anguish of a child with an illness that cannot be fixed.

Like millions of dads, I know this very well, because my younger son is profoundly disabled. There’s no fixing him and, sometimes when despair sets in, it can feel as though there is no way of helping him at all. Life After Deaf reflected both sides of this dilemma. Joe, who was initially reluctant to be involved with the film, was thrilled by the impetus it gave him to make new friends and discover unseen advantages.

He joined a football team for deaf players and started to realise the benefits of talking to his motormouth father with sign language: conversations stay calm instead of turning into battles of repartee and recrimination. ‘We’re not quick enough on it to argue,’ Joe said.

John says he’s learned to accept his son’s deafness, but really he’s still looking for fixes. It’s in his nature. ‘There’s not a single day when I wouldn’t swap places with him,’ he said with soul-pinching honesty.

The show followed John as he prepared for his first gig using sign language. Filmed in edinburgh earlier this year, it aired after the News At Ten.

As with all his stand-up routines, some of his gags were raw with truth. He didn’t understand how serious Joe’s deafness was at 15, he said, ‘because at that age they ignore you anyway’.

Standing in the wings, Joe looked uncomfortable.

‘His comedy is not up my street,’ he admitted, ‘because I tend to be in it.’

That’s another source of woe, common to every dad — our children never think we’re funny. Stranded in the middle of all this stifled male emotion was John’s wife Melanie, Joe’s mother. It wasn’t clear whether she’s also learning sign language. Perhaps she’s just enjoying the quiet when her husband isn’t talking.

At the vet’s practice in Darrowby, on All Creatures Great And Small (C5), James Herriot’s new wife Helen (rachel Shenton) is also the quiet voice at the middle of a male emotional maelstrom. Siegfried (Sam West) is more exasperating than ever, as he makes half-hearted attempts to let his brother Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) and James (Nicholas ralph) share his responsibilities.

It’s a measure of West’s superb performance that he’s a match for robert Hardy in the role, while never imitating the Siegfried of the original BBC series from the 1980s.

Woodhouse makes Tristan more vulnerable and anxious than Peter Davison ever was, though just as thick.

It’s all sheer pleasure, easily the best period drama currently on Tv and a weekly delight.