Austin Power.

Well after the complete shitstorm of this years Autism Awareness Month I needed a wee bit of light relief so decided to take the plunge and binge the eight-part Australian-British comedy drama series Austin that recently 'dropped' (as the cool kids say) on Iplayer over here in 'Great' Britain.

 

Starring Michael Theo - who I originally knew from the Australian version of Love on The Spectrum and since then have avidly listened to on his brilliant Mr A+ podcast - as the title character, a 20 something Autistic guy discovering his real father isn't a sperm donor but in fact Julian Hartswood (Ben Miller), a much celebrated English children’s author recently cancelled for accidentally reposting a Neo-Nazi comment on Twitter.

We've all been there.

Seeing the idea of having a long lost son (especially an Autistic one) as a road to getting his career back on track Julian throws himself into getting to know Austin, even hiring a film maker to document the events, much to the chagrin of his wife - and long-time book collaborator Ingrid (Sally Phillips).

Along for the ride are Gia Carides as Austin's mother Mel, the brilliant Roy Billing as Austin's grandfather Bill and Dame Billie of Piper in a fantastically funny cameo as herself.

Just because we love Sally Phillips - and you should too.

Where the show comes into it's own for me is that it actually had Michael Theo work on the script (alongside Miller and Phillips), which gives a much-needed Autistic sense of reality to the whole thing and it's his honesty (and genuine comic talent) that works so well with Ben Miller’s character - both performances come across as effortless and with a lovely warmth and humour.

Michael's Autistic observations (for example at the first meeting between his family and his newly discovered father, the most important topic to Austin is the inconsistencies on Julian’s Wikipedia page) may sound a wee bit odd to the non-we watching but to those of us in the know (and who do) are genuinely hilarious.

Plus it's great to get to laugh at ourselves on our own terms for once, we sat watching from the viewpoint of not just being parents of Autistic kids but as an Autistic/NT couple so certain situations (for example Michael refusing to leave the cinema before the credits had finished) left Rho in fits of (recognizable) laughter...the show never takes the piss out of Michael but it allowed us to laugh at some of the things I do.

Which is kinda nice.

Or so Rho told me.

 

Stop - Miller time!

 

And to be honest, it's the series' gentle humour and general niceness that raises it above not only your average sitcom but above most other Autistic based teevee, usually the Autistic character is just a crutch for the story and for everyone else to learn from whereas her Austin is a real person surrounded by a group of other real people all with their own agenda and ideas, the fun is seeing how all of this comes together.

This is helped in no small part by co-directors Darren Ashton and Madeleine Dyer bringing an almost Paddington-like breeziness to the show’s eight (30 minute) episode run, Austin is not only light and lovely but genuinely funny.

And exactly what I needed right now.

Top teevee entertainment all round.