Returned home from a particularly well-attended and lively Horsham Labour Party meeting this evening and watched Last Chance to See on the BBC’s iPlayer.   What a cracking programme that is.  I bought the book when it came out in 1990 and realise that I haven’t re-read it at all – something I must remedy soon.  My recent habit is that when I have watched the programme I turned the TV on for I turn it back off again.  This is instead of idle channel-surfing which is now all the more fun for being an occasional treat.  Anyway, after exiting iPlayer the TV returned to BBC1, which was showing a documentary on Autism.This is not something I would make an appointment to watch.  My gut reaction is to think it is going to be depressing and/or harrowing, but I left this show on for a while and was totally drawn into it.  The programme was following three young men with Autism/Aspergers: one looking for work, one with a part-time job and looking for a partner and one taking his exams.

It helped me to see why Jayne still finds her work in a special needs school rewarding in spite of the scratching, biting and punching she gets from some of the students.   I just loved the awareness the lads all had for their conditions and the way it showed them to not be any better or worse than anyone else: just different.  It is a cliche I know and the Richard Littlejohns no doubt see the phrase and concept of ‘differently abled’ as political correctness gone mad but this programme illustrated why the phrase is spot-on, for all its awkwardness.

Towards the end, the chap who was looking for a job was talking to camera and explaining how he knew he would grow up more slowly than what he called mainstream people.  Somehow that degree of self awareness just made it seem that really he is already more grown up than many of us can ever hope to be.  ((And to prove the point I will probably be back on my current journey through 80s and 90s action films tomorrow))

The programme was called The Autistic Me.  It is on iPlayer and will be shown again on Saturday on BBC Three. I thoroughly recommend it and challenge anybody to watch it without becoming embarrassingly emotional by the end.