THIS WEEK’S CHOICE
Return of the drama about a family living with autism.
Two years on and things have changed for our A Word family. Joe is 10years-old and living in two places at once, processing the seismic change in his life through the filter of his autism. His parents Alison and Paul are divorced, and live 100-miles apart. Nicola has moved to London, Eddie lives with his dad. Only Maurice is holding it together.
As well as Christopher Eccleston, new faces joining this series include Julie Hesmondhalgh, Sarah Gordy and David Gyasi.
Filming for the new series of The A Word took place in the Lake District and Manchester.
“At the end of series two, Maurice had proposed to Louise and been turned down. But he was very, very happy, I think he was in a good place. At the end of series one, he was still in the first stages of grief for Sandra and the relationship with Louise was starting to get going. But it was cemented by the end of series two, although he was also seeing his family splinter. But, being Maurice, he did everything he could to paper over the cracks.
“The audience might be sad to hear it, but some of his rough edges have been taken off. The way Peter Bowker has written him this time, there is a sense the relationship with Louise has flourished and he makes a joke about having mellowed – he is using slightly more of his emotional intelligence, if that can be believed.
“He’s a happier man. He’s probably happier than his children, which bemuses him. His children are in early middle age and are splintering. Their lives are falling apart, really, or certainly changing, so I think that’s quite bemusing for Maurice.”
“Well, I’m known for probably three other significant roles – Doctor Who, Our Friends In The North, and Cracker – the death scene in Cracker. And I’m a runner, so I’m often out and about and I get stopped a lot in the street. I’m stopped just as much about The A Word as I am for those three, which has surprised me.
“The reason I’m stopped is because it seems autism has impacted on every person you meet – be it people’s children, grandchildren, best friends. It’s had an enormous impact on me, personally. I often get people crying and saying, “thank you very much for doing it because we never see anything about autism on the television. And thank you very much for not being, for want of a better word, pompous about it”.