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Where to watch "The A Word"
6. Episode 6
No release date yet
Ralph and Katie move into their new place together. Louise, along with Maurice and Paul, helps Ralph pack his things. When she returns to her empty house, she breaks down from the loss of her son - and the joy of his success finally hits her. In Manchester, Rebecca, now heavily pregnant, has agreed to be Joe’s ‘show and tell’ at his school. Seeing Joe in school, in his surroundings, makes Rebecca feel deeply reassured. She thanks Heather for being Joe’s teacher. It’s been two weeks since Alison and Ben went on their weekend away, but Alison hasn’t seen much of Ben since. He returns and surprises Alison but also says they need to talk. In the Lakes, Sarah tells Paul she thinks they should end it too. Paul’s not quite sure what ‘it’ is that they’re ending – they’ve only had two kisses. Paul offers Mark the role of Head Waiter at the gastropub. Mark accepts. On the drive back to the Lakes from Manchester, Rebecca is going into labor in the middle of nowhere, and her phone is dead. Joe’s response is to put on his headphones, get out of the car and walk. Following a rush to the hospital and Alison helping Rebecca through her labor - a baby girl is born. Joe’s new friends, Maurice, Louise, Tom, Paul and Eddie, gather to meet the baby, and Paul and Alison share a moment where things feel somewhat easy. As Louise sits holding the baby, Maurice bites the bullet and proposes to her.
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5. Episode 5
No release date yet
It’s the day before Ralph’s wedding and his dad Doug turns up at Louise’s house to see him. It’s been ten years since Doug left Louise and Ralph, and Louise doesn’t want her ex around. Ralph doesn’t want to upset his mom but has a genuine interest in his dad and invites Doug to join him, Josh and Maurice for his bachelor party drinks. It is there that Maurice and Doug find themselves talking, and Doug shares his version of why he and Louise split up. At the gastropub, Paul is busily preparing for the wedding, but Joe won’t let go of Paul’s promise to take him to a Farm Park. When Mark offers to take Joe, Paul isn’t keen, but Rebecca and Sarah both think Paul should put his trust in Mark. So Paul agrees and sends Mark and Joe into the world on their own with packed lunches and a bus timetable. But after an hour, with no texts from Mark, Paul cracks and rushes to the Farm Park to check on them. There he finds Sarah, who’s had the same idea, but there’s no sign of Mark and Joe. It’s Rebecca who finds the boys safe back at the house. Paul and Rebecca talk about her baby’s arrival in a few months and where she’ll live when the baby is born. The morning of the wedding arrives, and Maurice finds that Ralph has been looking at Doug’s social media page and has uploaded a photo of him and his dad as his computer screenshot. Making a split decision, Maurice leaves with his suit. and drives to Doug’s house in Kirby Lonsdale. The wedding is a celebration of a pure kind of love, untouched by cynicism, starting with a dance routine choreographed by Ralph and Katie. Paul takes the opportunity to drive Rebecca and Joe over to his new house and show Rebecca the room he is decorating for her and the baby. Rebecca is thrilled that Paul and Joe want her and the baby to live with them.
4. Episode 4
No release date yet
In Manchester - Alison, with the help of Joe’s teacher Heather, has organized a sponsored walk for the children in Joe’s class. Alison has inevitably planned the walk meticulously and has roped in Maurice, Paul, Rebecca and Ben as volunteers to help the children. On the morning of the walk, Joe struggles to get up and ready and refuses to come out. It causes friction between her, Paul and Ben. In the end, Rebecca convinces Joe that the walk isn’t something to be feared. Joe’s small triumph allows Paul and Alison to end the day on easy terms. The walk also sees Paul and Sarah growing closer, as Sarah offers her services as a volunteer, and Paul ends up inviting her to Ralph’s wedding as his plus-one. Ben surprises Alison by offering to book them a weekend away. Alison surprises Ben by agreeing. The walk gives Rebecca the courage to tell Alison how she feels about her pregnancy. She confesses to feeling overwhelmed and voices her hidden fears that her child may have some difficulties. Not because there is any genetic evidence – there isn’t – but because Joe has been her ‘normal’ all her life, so it’s bound to be a question. Meanwhile, still bruised from the loss of Eddie to London, Maurice decides to channel all his energies into Ralph as the wedding draws closer. Maurice learns that a man named Josh is Ralph’s oldest friend and his best man. Maurice tries not to show how gutted he is but, when Ralph chides him for fussing, Maurice can’t hide his disappointment.
3. Episode 3
No release date yet
Eddie surprises Maurice with some good news. He has made Scott’s Brewery such a success that a company in London want to buy it. It’s the moment of triumph that Eddie has waited for all his life, but Maurice is furious. To him, Eddie selling the brewery would be tantamount to selling out the community and the family. In Manchester, Ben asks Alison if she and Joe would like to go out for the day. As Ben and Alison head back for a nightcap, they’re interrupted by Rebecca, who made an impulsive journey to Manchester to talk to her Mom. Rebecca is annoyed that Alison has been sending her pregnancy books and she demands the truth from Alison about what she thinks about the pregnancy. Alison decides to be honest with Rebecca: she thinks having a baby at such a young age will make Rebecca’s life harder, but that doesn’t mean she won’t support her. As the weekend arrives, Joe joins Paul for a camping trip in the Lakes, organized by Sarah, Bill’s mom. Paul invites Eddie for one last hurrah, but tensions quickly flare when Eddie discovers that Maurice had got an invitation too. The trip is also an attempt on Paul’s part to try and reconnect with Joe. Though he doesn’t want to admit it, Paul is keenly aware that – with the introduction of Ben into Alison’s life – it might not be long before another man is parenting his son.
2. Episode 2
No release date yet
Rebecca talks to Joe about the baby that she’s having and that the baby will be his new friend. Joe doesn’t say much in response, but over the coming days the idea of the new baby and what it might represent – namely more change within his ever-changing family – start affecting Joe’s behavior and relationship with his school teacher, Heather. Heather is the person who helps Joe figure out what’s bothering him. While helping Joe, Heather unwittingly causes him to cling to her and the school as his new safe space. This presents Heather and Alison with a new problem as Joe becomes reluctant to leave the school to go home. Since announcing that she’s pregnant, Rebecca has avoided talking to her family about it and Alison is concerned that Rebecca feels she must face the future on her own. She decides to go to the Lakes to see Rebecca but finds her car blocked. Ben, the parent she met previously, offers her a lift to the Lakes, and the pair drive to Maurice’s house. As they return to Manchester, Ben presents Alison with a questionnaire – a way of asking her out on a date. In the Lakes, Paul is shocked when Mark announces he has applied to join the Army. His initial fear is that Mark will be rejected and will get devastated as a result. Then a much bigger fear takes shape: what if Mark gets into the Army? Meanwhile, Maurice is sent into a tailspin when he receives a gift from a female member of his hiking group, Pauline. The price tag is still visible on it. In Maurice’s head, it is an indicator of the size of the crush Pauline has on him. He fears that Louise will kill him if she finds out. He panics and hides the gift, but will Louise find it?
1. Episode 1
No release date yet
Two years on, and things have changed: Joe is now 10, living in two places at once, processing the seismic change in his life through the filter of his autism. Alison and Paul are divorced and living 100 miles apart. Nicola has moved to London, and Eddie lives with his dad. Rebecca has just realized she is pregnant. Only Maurice is holding it together – and if Maurice is the one that is holding it together, you know you are in trouble. So the story of Season 3 is how our family reinvents and reassembles itself. A family is always a puzzle, and this one needs piecing back together – albeit in a different shape. At the center of that puzzle is Joe, trying to handle change when change is the one thing he can’t handle. If the character of Joe has a defining dramatic dilemma in this series, it is the question of how you integrate yourself into a world that appears to be disintegrating?
