A Normal Family: Henry Normal's poetic paean to his autistic son

It’s been 20 years since Henry Normal’s poetry got an airing on the wireless, but A Normal Family (Radio 4) is so moving and cheery it’s worth the wait.

Normal, who’s perhaps best known for co-writing The Royle Family and The Mrs Merton Show, goes back to his roots in a show that’s part stand-up, part poetry recital and a total outpouring of love for his autistic son Johnny.

“I remember saying to myself that he was going to have a better life than me,” says Normal, voice cracking with emotion as he recalls seeing his newborn baby Johnny for the first time. “Things that had held me back wouldn’t hold him back. I’d see to that.”

But Johnny, who is now a teenager, was diagnosed as “mildly severe” on the autistic spectrum. Normal was handed a leaflet with the word “incurable” on it. In one poem, he painfully nails his feelings about the condition. “It means he will always live at home, it means he will never have a job, never have a girlfriend, never be capable of taking care of himself … you will worry what will happen to him when you die,” he says.

As the live audience falls silent, Normal times his brightening of the mood to comic perfection. “I’ve brought along a toilet roll, just in case,” he jokes. Johnny went to the zoo as a child and his favourite bit was a monkey bin; now his parents celebrate small victories, like the moment when he behaved like a typical teenager, shouting for the iPad. He’s a happy boy most of the time and his family tried everything to make things right. “Music therapy, art therapy … and of course swimming with dolphins,” says Normal. “Like any parent, we’d have skydived playing the ukulele if it would help.”

It’s a rare and lovely thing: half an hour of radio that stops you short, gently demands your attention and then wipes your tears away while you have to have a little sit down. The poems are succinct, heartrending and peppered with gentle punchlines. In King Canute Should Have Checked The Tides, Normal pays tribute to his family’s strength. “Bring on your highest wave,” he says. “The glory is ours. We live here. We own this weather.”