A BBC television drama series focusing on a young boy named Joe Hughes who has recently been diagnosed as Autistic and how his family learn to accept it while dealing with other problems in their lives.
Filmed mainly in the Lake District and parts of Manchester, the programme started in 2016 and spawned three series by the end of 2020 and a spin-off called Ralph and Katie in October 2022.
It is based on an Israeli series called Yellow Peppers that ran from 2010 to 2014.
This show contains examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Paul Hughes has a tendency to refer to his son as Mozart.
- Anything but That!: You can tell just by the Hughes' speech and facial expressions that they hope their son is not Autistic.
- Awful Truth: This is how Alison and Paul Hughes treat and eventually react to the possibility and confirmation that their son is Autistic.
- Berserk Button:
- Joe being prevented from listening to music.
- Alison's initial attitude towards her son being Autistic as she believes this is "labelling" him.
- Joe's support worker Maya being deported in the penultimate episode of Series 1 and Alison's handling of the situation has a very negative effect on Joe's behaviour in school as implied by his teacher's description of an in-class Noodle Incident.
- Big Sister Instinct: Rebecca to Joe.
- Break the Cutie: Joe goes into withdrawal mode or has a meltdown if he's not allowed to play music.
- Catchphrase: Joe tends to start sentences with "Hmmm, let me think...", especially when he's being asked a question.
- Children Are Innocent: Joe is only 5 at the start of the series.
- Control Freak: Alison, especially in Series 1, once her son is diagnosed with Autism.
- The Dreaded: Alison's initial reaction to her son's Autism diagnosis is to treat it like this.
- Entitled Bastard: Alison in Series 1 as a result of Joe being Autistic.
- Fantastic Ableism: The Hughes' general attitude towards Joe (excluding Rebecca) being Autistic reeks of this in Series 1.
- Foreshadowing: The series kicks off with Joe walking down a country road unattended, singing along to music on his headphones and the family coming to retrieve him in their van, it soon becomes clear this is a trait of his Autism and it leads to him encountering a stranger in the 4th episode of Series 1 and running away and going missing in the Series 1 finale.
- Henpecked Husband: Paul Hughes, infact feeling henpecked could apply to anyone in the series who isn't Alison or Joe.
- Hollywood Autism: Whether this was intentional or not, Joe has an encyclopaedic knowledge of music, especially of the Pop genre.
- It's All About Me: Alison's attitude in Season 1 clearly demonstrates this as a result of Joe being Autistic.
- Jerkass:
- Alison borders on this sometimes.
- Maurice has his moments.
- Bob Herd, with no positive moments, unlike Alison and Maurice.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Latterly, both Alison and Maurice (and Nicola and Louise) are more obviously this. Nicola's boss Dr Graves also, although he's more like a Heart of rusted Bronze.
- Missing Child: Joe runs away in the Series 1 finale after Maurice leaves him with Ralph.
- Momma's Boy: Joe, mainly because he's one of the few people his mother doesn't make a habit of harassing at every opportunity.
- My Beloved Smother: This is Alison Hughes' general attitude towards her son.
- Never My Fault: This is Alison in a nutshell.
- Nice Girl: Rebecca, Joe's sister, is a lovely, supportive, kindhearted young girl/woman. Also, Mark's mum Sophie, and Bill's mum Sarah are pretty caring and friendly. Also, Maya has looked after Joe very well. Also, Heather, Joe's lovely teacher in Series 3. Katie also.
- Nice Guy: Joe, Paul, Eddie, Mark, and Rebecca's friend Tom fit quite nicely into this. Also, Joe's friends, Bill, Ramesh and Alfie. And Ben, Alison's brief boyfriend in series 3. Ralph too.
- The Reason You Suck: Alison gets this off pretty much everyone who is a friend or a family member of the Hughes' in Series 1, usually to little, if any, effect on her attitude towards everyone except Joe.
- Selective Obliviousness: It's possible the Hughes' had been taking this stance towards their son for sometime before his Autism diagnosis.
- Suddenly Shouting: A common occurrence, given the series is about a dysfunctional family learning to accept they have a child on the Autism Spectrum.
- Those Two Guys: Joe befriends two neurotypical boys at the school he attends in Series 1 and Alison invites them to a sleepover.
- The Un-Favourite:
- Joe's adolescent half-sister Rebecca.
- The Hughes' generally perceive Joe to be this in the eyes of his peers at school.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Joe being Autistic is evidently what the Hughes' feared the most once he is diagnosed.
