Paddy and Christine McGuinness to front BBC autism documentary

Paddy McGuinness and Christine McGuinness are to front a new BBC documentary about autism.

Our Family and Autism will air on BBC One and stream online via the BBC iPlayer.

The one-off documentary film will follow Paddy and Christine McGuinness after their three children were diagnosed with autism.

The BBC share: “What is autism in medical terms? When a child is diagnosed, what do you do? What support is out there? What does the future have in store? Is there ever a ‘right’ way to react and deal with the news of a diagnosis? And what is the impact on the family?

“Paddy and Christine will meet with other parents of autistic children to see how their experiences differ and whether they can learn from them. They will also meet leading paediatricians and cutting-edge child-development experts to discover more about their children’s autism – and the condition in general.

“Intimate, emotional and refreshingly candid, this is the portrait of a family so many assume they know, but seen here like never before. The film aims to challenge people’s preconceptions and kickstart a national conversation about an increasingly common condition that so few of us really understand.”

The documentary will be released on Wednesday, 1 December at 9PM on BBC One and iPlayer.

Meanwhile the BBC has also announced a special documentary celebrating the diversity of the NHS workforce.

Our International NHS will see David Olusoga looking at the immigrant workforce that has been the backbone of the NHS, from its inception 70 years ago to the current pandemic.

The BBC say: “Throughout its history, the NHS has drawn in doctors, nurses, specialists and support staff from overseas, and without them the NHS would simply have collapsed, unable to deliver on its foundational promise of a universal healthcare system available to all.

“But though desperately needed these key workers have not always felt wanted. Presented by David with his forensic eye for documents, artefacts and archive, the film tells the story of the NHS from the perspective of Irish and Caribbean nurses, Asian doctors and Eastern European ancillary workers, whose personal journeys expose revelatory truths about an institution that today more than ever has become ‘the closest thing we have to a national religion.’”