THE A TEAM
LEE INGLEBY and MORVEN CHRISTIE on the return of their moving autism drama
THE A WORD’S moving, no-holdsbarred and often darkly comic depiction of one family’s struggle to deal with their young son’s autism won both great acclaim and the hearts of viewers last year.
Now, as we rejoin the Hughes family for the second six-part series of BBC1’S Lake District-set drama, young Joe (Max Vento) is seven and his parents Paul (Lee Ingleby) and Alison (Morven Christie) are facing fresh challenges about their music-loving son’s future and their own relationship.
Here, Ingleby, 41, and Christie, 36, give us the lowdown and reveal how the show has put autism on the TV map…
WHERE DO WE FIND PAUL AND ALISON IN THE NEW SERIES?
INGLEBY It’s two years on and they seem to have got used to their situation. Joe remains unaware he’s autistic, or so they think. Paul befriends this older autistic boy Mark [Travis Smith, who has autism in real life], but he doesn’t want to embrace the autism community because he is considering the future for Joe and he doesn’t like what he sees. He is floundering.
CHRISTIE It’s like a role reversal because, in the first series, Alison fought against things, but she is now finding the joy in Joe and has ways of managing his behaviour. She looks for support from other members of the autism community and has become friends with
Mark’s mum, Sophie [Lucy Gaskell]. So she is less terrified, and although she is still a bull in a china shop she becomes more loveable.
AS THE SERIES STARTS, JOE IS NOT COPING IN MAINSTREAM SCHOOL. HOW DOES THAT AFFECT THEM?
INGLEBY Other parents are complaining about his behaviour, which is becoming more extreme, and the teachers are struggling to deal with it. So Alison and Paul send him to another school in Manchester that has a special facility, but it throws up curveballs, especially as Alison goes with him while Paul runs the gastropub in the Lakes so they have a fractured lifestyle. CHRISTIE It starts a rift in Paul and Alison’s relationship and they are on different emotional paths and spending time apart. It’s a common story in families with autistic children because people handle it in different ways and that causes conflicts. But it still surprises her when it all starts to unravel.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT WORKING WITH MAX VENTO, WHO PLAYS JOE?
INGLEBY Sometimes you have to remind yourself that he is just a kid and he wants to have fun on set. But he does his job brilliantly well. CHRISTIE He has such a clear understanding of how to play Joe and a way of switching it on and off because he’s such a responsive boy, while Joe isn’t. I love his company and I’m very protective and maternal towards him. We do Snapchat filters together.
WHY DID THE FIRST SERIES STRIKE A CHORD WITH VIEWERS?
INGLEBY It felt like it mattered. The show doesn’t have any police procedure or car chases or open-heart surgery, it is
just about people. I see my own family reflected in it with their foibles and struggles and that’s what appeals to everyone.
CHRISTIE There is so much love and warmth in it, too, and it’s a story that we haven’t seen on TV before about a family dealing with autism. I’m very proud of it.
WHAT REACTION HAVE YOU HAD FROM THE AUTISTIC COMMUNITY?
CHRISTIE There’s been real acknowledgment. Some people had a negative reaction to Alison, but I also got letters from mums who’d been in that situation and they just said, ‘Thank you’, because it felt truthful to them. I had conversations too with a friend whose son is on the spectrum. She said that when he’s on the Tube wearing his Ear Defenders, people just smile at them now so the impact on her was transformative. INGLEBY I had a woman write to me and say, ‘Thank you’, when her child was invited to his first-ever birthday because other parents suddenly understood he was different rather than odd. It makes you feel like you’re doing good.
COULD THERE BE A THIRD SERIES?
INGLEBY I think so. The writer Peter Bowker has an idea of being like Boyhood [the 2014 film following a child over 12 years] where you keep coming back every two years as Joe grows up. I’d really like
to do it.