Behind the scenes of the BBC Horizon film 'Living with autism'.

Post date: Mar 31, 2014 4:32:05 PM

The working title was “Inside the mind of the autistic person” and I was very excited that I could have a say in what would be in the programme. It seemed to me a unique opportunity to put across the point of view of psychology - what is it like to be autistic? Do autistic people really have a different mind from the rest of us? I think so.

I learned an awful lot doing this programme. The script was written and rewritten, like a patchwork quilt. Scenes had to be filmed quite out of chronological order. I learned how difficult it is to make a documentary. I was very impressed by the careful work of Helen Sage, the director and her team. I don’t know whether this is always the case, but we all bonded over the filming, and I benefited from good advice and moral support from everybody in the team.

I was greatly helped by the idea that people watching the programme just might be captured by the idea that they could learn something new about themselves and think about something that they had never thought about before. With great relief I realised that this programme was not going to be made to be watched by my colleagues. I had already imagined them asking “Why does she put in this – why does she leave out that?”

To me what the process made quite clear was that I was still as fascinated with autism as ever. I relished meeting the extraordinary people we were privileged to film, and I hoped that my enthusiasm might infect others.

It was clear to me that there could not be a comprehensive account of autism, but my overriding concern was that the story should be true. Did I succeed in this? I have no idea.