‘The A Word’: An Autism Drama With Humor and Love

Ken Tucker
·Critic-at-Large, Yahoo Entertainment
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Photo: SundanceTV

Five-year-old Joe Hughes (Max Vento) seems to get the most pleasure out of life when he has big earphones clamped over his ears blasting ’80s pop music from bands like The Arctic Monkeys and Pulp. In the charming but tense The A Word, premiering Wednesday on SundanceTV, Joe is a sweet little boy whose life becomes more complicated — both for him and his family — when he’s diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum.

Set in the rural Lake District of England, the show follows the reverberating reactions of Joe’s parents, Alison (Morven Christie, from Grantchester) and Paul (Lee Ingleby), and their extended family, which includes Joe’s grandfather, played by The Leftovers’ Christopher Eccleston. Alison and Paul have noticed that Joe has difficulty with social interactions and communication, but if they’ve suspected anything, they’ve buried it in their busy lives and a fear of knowing the truth. But between school and some awkward moments with other parents, they’re compelled to have Joe tested.

A British production written by Peter Bowker — he developed the six-part series based on Yellow Peppers, an Israeli TV drama with a similar theme and characters — The A Word spends a lot of time with the adults. Joe and his parents live close to Alison’s brother, Eddie (Greg McHugh), and his wife, Nicola (Vinette Robinson) — and the latter marriage is fragile and under repair after Nicola’s recent affair. Eccleston’s Maurice tends to be a blustery audience-surrogate, professing ignorance and asking blunt questions about autism that allow various characters to clue him in.

The resulting drama can be a little bit lopsided; once Maurice, a widower, embarks on a fling with a ukulele teacher (!), you may think The A Word also stands for “aimlessness.” But if you keep watching, The A Word gathers its own quiet power as a succession of portraits of people under stress (to add to the tension, money is tight for every member of the family) without becoming unbearably morose, thanks to regular bits of dotty British eccentricity and a few comic misunderstandings. The show is at its best, however, when it centers on sweet, solemn little Joe, who’s shutting out the world by singing along to Human League, subconsciously seeking human connection.

The A Word airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on SundanceTV.