Worth seeing:

for the warmth and wit of Michael Theo's autistic man, who connects with his self-involved children's author father

Featuring:	Ben Miller, Michael Theo, Sally Phillips, Billie Piper, Boni Adeliyi, Charlotte Nicdao, Ellie McKay, Fayssal Bazzi, Gia Carides, Jim Howick, Kate Elliott, Madeleine Dyer, Richard Davies, Rob Collins, Robin Ince, Roy Billing, Tai Hara, Zahra Newman
Key crew:	Darren Ashton, Madeleine Dyer, Joe Weatherstone, Peter Anderson, Adam Zwar, Ben Miller, Joe Tucker, Kala Ellis, Lloyd Woolf
Channel:	BBC iPlayer, BBC1
Length:	27 minutes
Episodes:	8
Broadcast date:	4th April 2025
Country:	Australia, UK

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Husband and wife children’s author and illustrator, Julian (Ben Miller) and Ingrid (Sally Phillips), have just arrived in Australia on the book tour for the latest release in their successful Big Bear series. But Julian gets a call from his agent back in London, saying that the tour has been cancelled – in fact he himself has been cancelled – because he retweeted a post about freedom of speech – that turns out to have been written by a neo-nazi.

Determined not to be beaten by the social media curse, Julian finds a book shop that will allow him to sign a few copies – but the only person who turns up is a slightly awkward fan, in his late twenties, Austin (Michael Theo), who drops the bombshell that he believes he is Julian’s son. Austin reintroduces Julian to his mother, who is overly protective of her son, because his autism makes him particularly vulnerable.

Ingrid initially embraces the new member of the family – until she realises that she and Julian were already together when Austin was born.

Julian is more interested in getting his career back on track than bonding with the new man in his life, but he realises he might be able to use the heart-warming story of a middle-aged author reconnecting with his long-lost autistic son to his advantage, so he hires a documentarian to follow the process – both in Australia and back home in London.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

This is a tough one – there is much to love about this quirky Australian sitcom, but in many ways, it is let down by some plot elements that just don’t ring true.

The script is whip smart, cracking one-liners in all directions – from Julian’s exasperation about his cancellation (why can’t you agree with a sensible statement, just because it was made by a nazi?) to Ingrid’s realisation that her devoted husband was unfaithful in the early months of their relationship, nearly thirty years ago, to Austin having to deal with the prospect of meeting a father who didn’t even know he existed – through the prism of his autism.

The characters ring true – they are all empathetic – and you really want things to work out for them, despite some of the forced errors they make, unsure how to handle everything from the cancellation to the new family dynamics. Michael Theo is particularly impressive as an autistic actor playing an autistic character, showing warmth and wit as he deals with a situation that neuro-typical people would struggle with.

But the narrative that forms the backbone of the series feels overstretched and somewhat arch. It’s divided between Canberra and London, so that both sets of characters get to have a go at playing the fish out of water. Some of the language differences they try to highlight for this purpose feel entirely fictitious. The notion of Julian trying to salvage his reputation by making a documentary about how welcoming, supporting and generous he is is to his newly discovered autistic son is fine – but the supposedly award-winning director he is lumbered with feels like she’s been taken from the wrong sitcom. The idea of having Austin’s mum and grandfather worry about how he might fare alone in London is cute, but having them follow him and stalk him from their hire car without ever revealing their presence seems more creepy than funny – it’s as if the Australian producers don’t want to lose viewers back home, so they have to find a way to keep more Australian actors on screen. Ingrid’s post-cancellation career path feels entirely pie-in-the-sky and a cameo from Billie Piper seems oddly twee.