So here is my last blog for The A Word…..

It’s the launch day of Paul’s gastro pub and the family gathers to open it’s doors. ‘Stop Right There’ !…….. How on earth do we expect little Joe to a) show any interest is this exciting event and b) hang around and proactively be part of the celebrations (remember the birthday party in Episode 1)……

We all knew that Episode 6 needed to have some kind of climax which it delivered in spades ! In the most intense and gripping episode yet as Joe goes missing whilst on Granddad Maurice’s watch. Initially I wasn’t too sure about the content of this episode but having had a bit of time to think it over it has ticked many, many boxes. It could have ended in a wallow of feel good sludge, or we might have been left with an easily digestible message about the importance of accepting people as they are and love conquering all even in the maladjusted Hughes family ……to it’s everlasting credit it is much harder, tougher and truthful than that. Even the landscape turns threatening !

We knew it would be a tough task and so it was. Alison up to now, having relentlessly imposed her will on everyone around her has suddenly become a loving, supportive wife and mother. This portrayal of her is far more unsettled than the deranged ‘tiger-mother’ we’ve been used to. The gastro pub is about to open but Joe is now missing; the weather has turned harsh, you can almost feel it through the screen as the night is looming. As the villagers gather to search for her son, Alison is forced to do the one thing she’s fought so hard against : admit that Joe has autism. “He’s a bit different” she says, “He doesn’t always do what you think other five year olds might do! …. He’s got autism. The main thing is that he might not know he’s lost or in danger!”. Finally she’s said it, even though the circumstances were horrific for her, she’s said it to the whole community.

“We’re all imposing our own narrative on his inner state, which we have no way of knowing anything about.”

This was said by Nicola (Joe’s aunt), in her own unique way which neatly for me summed up what the viewer has witnessed for the last five weeks of The A Word. It’s by far the most insightful observation any member of Joe’s family has said throughout this family drama. Any adult member of the family, anyway !!!!

Rebecca, one of the few characters who is able to have a decent relationship with Joe, fares as well as can be expected as she finally gets to be strong with her ex-boyfriend. She is finally seen and heard by Paul and Alison which is a minor miracle of sorts for this lovely and staggeringly well-balanced teenage girl.

And what of the little boy at the centre of everything? While all chaos is around, Joe is just Joe. We’ve observed him walking the lonely country road week after week with a different comfort toy in hand. What we didn’t guess was where he was going or where he’d been. During the search for him, it’s discovered that he’s had a little hiding spot for his toys and that whilst missing his sister, he’d gone to her usual hang-out place – the bus stop! It’s startlingly clear that it’s not Joe who needs to change….but the people around him!

Finally Alison goes to reconcile and find peace with Ralph’s (Downs Syndrome) mum Louise. Louise lets Alison be under no illusions about having a child with autism, “You’ve got a child that’s different” she warns, “That will always be there” as Alison finally realises that she loves her son just the way he is.

As a final episode, it’s not completely satisfying. Surely there is to be a second series as this one has not been tied up with a bow. It would appear that there is plenty more story to tell and to some degree, this feels like an opening chapter of a life of a family with an autistic son. Alison’s transformation has been a little too unrealistic and the final scène of the happy family lying together on the bed feels barely believable. And we will never forgive the writer if this is really the end for Eddie and Nicola !

Written by Sally Creedon on behalf of Integrated Treatment Services