What time is The A Word on TV?
Everything you need to know about season 2 of Peter Bowker's autism focused family drama
What time is it on TV?
The A Word returns on Tuesday 28th November at 9pm on BBC1.
What's it about?
The second season of the BBC family drama follows the story of autistic seven-year-old Joe Hughes two years after his diagnosis. The Hughes family are still determined that Joe feels anything but strange but with the season opener showing Joe blithely sitting on his school's roof with his feet dangling towards the playground, you can tell they are not in for an easy ride.
It stars Max Vento, Lee Ingleby, Morven Christie and Christopher Eccleston. You can find out more about the cast here.
What happens in this episode?
I love Eddie, Alison’s brother and Joe’s uncle. He might look and sound like a blithering manchild, but he’s kind and funny.
He becomes angry, too, on Joe’s behalf when he helps with a questionnaire about Joe’s autistic behaviour. Can Joe hop, for instance? But what's the point of that, wonders Eddie (Greg McHugh). “Hopping? Where’s that going to get him in life, unless the Beatrix Potter museum is hiring.”
It’s a typical sentence by writer Peter Bowker – it sounds like a gag, but it’s so much more. In fact, this is a really funny episode, even though it deals with the serious things, like the state of Joe’s parents’ marriage.
Paul and Alison (Lee Ingleby and Morven Christie) feel distracted and distant after Paul’s needless non-confession, but their thoughtful daughter Becky tries to heal the rift. And then there’s hapless patriarch Maurice (Christopher Eccleston), who has an existential crisis during a fell race.
Review by Alison Graham
Where is The A Word filmed?
With rolling hills and huge expanses of water, the Lake District serves as the perfect backdrop to a story set in a small Cumbrian community. You can find out more about the filming locations here.
Was season 1 any good?
Definitely. It regularly pulled in more than four million viewers and delightfully introduced us to the highs and lows of dealing with a child with autism.
