When John Bishop's son, Joe, started to lose his hearing as a teenager due to a progressive autoimmune disease, the comedian didn't quite know how to deal with the life-changing diagnosis for his eldest, opting to go down the road of trying to 'fix' the problem for his son, rather than opting to embrace the deaf community.
An hour-long ITV documentary, Life After Deaf, followed John and Joe as they try and reconnect and learn British Sign Language (BSL) together, with Joe emotionally explaining how he felt when he started to become deaf a decade ago. Stand-up Bishop, also aimed to complete a gig fully in BSL by the end of the episode.
At the start of the episode Joe, who confessed he'd always had a fear about talking about his deafness, said: "Me and my dad have never really sat down and had a proper heart-to-heart about it. When I was a kid, that was the time I should have said more and I didn't. Now I don't really see the point much because you know, I'm 27 now talking about stuff and when you're a kid, there comes a point when you have to move on."
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Later in the show, John spoke to Oliver, a teacher who lost his hearing at the age of six and whose dad took his diagnosis quite hard and wanted to 'fix' his son, this hit John hard. Oliver said: "He was sort of thinking how can he fix it? How can we cure it and ultimately make him hear again. Is that how you felt?"
"[I felt] exactly the same," said John, who gets emotional when he realises the weight of what Oliver is telling him.
"But I felt like there was something wrong with me at that time. I wish I had support maybe emotionally that made me feel more inferior and less isolated from the world really. At the end of the day, talk about fixing something or we can make somebody happy as they can be made them proud of themselves."
Oliver's talk made John realise what Joe might have been going through a decade earlier. "After speaking with Oliver you think 'wish I'd have thought about that 10 years ago.' Being lonely, isolated, at family dos when everyone else can hear, and I think I blamed Joe for being moody. It would have been more frustrating than I realised. It was always felt that instead of Joe going into the deaf community we should try and keep him in this one and he's ended up between the two."
The documentary saw Joe enjoy a night out at a pub with the deaf community and play football, a game he loved as a kid but gave up after his diagnosis, as well as improve communication with his father.
He said: "My dad's been trying. I can acknowledge the intention much more. Something I think he's realised that it's a lifelong thing and I can't be fixed, but I don't need to be fixed, I never did."
Viewers were quick to praise the documentary with Christopher Reay tweeting: " Thought #LifeAfterDeaf was a truly eye opening and emotional watch. Full credit to @JohnBishop100 and Joe to show the level of vulnerability they did." Annemarie Noble wrote: "#LifeAfterDeaf on @ITV is amazing, as it explains the mental health impact of losing your hearing. I started having hearing problems at 15yrs & #Joe has experienced a lot of the same emotions I did. My advice is not to hide hearing impairment, explain so people can help!"
And Eric said: "Best moment for me was the realisation that Johns son Joe doesn't need fixing. Amazing to have an introduction to the deaf community and challenges in #LifeAfterDeaf and #johnbishop."
You can catch up on Life After Deaf on ITV Hub, now.
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