KEY POINTS:
Big-screen portrayals of the isolated and obsessive world of the autistic often romanticise the genius side of the condition. Last night's Sunday Theatre telemovie, After Thomas (TV One, 8.30), concentrated on the harrowing business of raising a child seemingly incapable of showing affection.
Based on a true story, the drama began with a gritty, factual tone but soon transpired to have all the ingredients for a Sunday night weepy.
It was part relationships drama, as couple Nic and Rob (Keeley Hawes and Ben Miles) were on the verge of all-out war in the exhausting struggle to raise their severely autistic son Kyle.
It was also the story of a mother desperate for her son - whose only interest in the world appeared to be Thomas the Tank Engine - to show her some sign that he returned her love. And, when the adorable golden retriever arrived to win the hearts of all in the family - the Thomas of the title - it became part cute pet movie as well.
It was the sensible intuition of Nic's beloved mum Pat that, if no one wants to work with children or animals, then why not leave them to work together. Thomas the dog managed to do what the humans couldn't: penetrate Kyle's cut-off world. Through the dog, the parents were eventually able to make contact with their son. The heart-warming moment - signalled well in advance with all the subtlety of, well, a tank engine, in a scene where Rob tells Nic to accept Kyle can never show her affection - came when Nic's son was finally able to tell her he loved her.
There were other teary interludes: the death of Nic's helpful mum and, most lip-quivering of all, the dog's brush with a life-threatening illness. But for all its disease-of-the-week-movie elements, After Thomas did effectively convey the sheer exhaustion of parenting an autistic child. Although the first few scenes of Nic wrestling on the high street with her child's uncontrollable tantrums and the humiliations of public disapproval promised a far more visceral drama than actually unfolded.
But it worked hard on providing many ironies. Nic, a highly regarded paediatrics nurse, was unable to do anything to help her own disabled son. The dog's obedience and affection were a painful contrast to her wild, uncontrollable boy. The final scene was filmed in a maze, where the couple finally found their monster transformed into a loving son.
To be critical about anything that seeks to raise awareness of a disabling condition always appears churlish. But After Thomas took for granted its middle-class world where the family have no financial strain and access to a wide range of resources. It was hard not to compare it unfavourably with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, written by Mark Haddon, which pulls off the amazing feat of portraying the world entirely from the point of view of an autistic boy, while perfectly conveying the nightmare his condition causes for his struggling solo mum.
