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This is a lovely human moment between Tommy Romano, who has Tourette syndrome, his mother and their understanding doctor of many years. Tommy, now 20, recalls those early years of growing up with Tourettes. His mother remembers the cruelty of other children and their parents who could not come to terms with Tommy’s twitches and growls and would send him home early from parties because he was different.
Curator’s notes
A thought-provoking account of the suffering of a disabled boy being recalled by a most attractive and articulate young man. The strength of the program is that we begin to ask ourselves just which is the normal behaviour here, that of the person with Tourettes, or that of the so-called normal people who treated a fellow human being so badly. Tommy insists without rancour that what he went through has made him a better person. He’s able to tackle adversity and can understand the plight of others who might be different from the norm. Tommy’s tics are now completely under control, although for a number of years he took medication to keep them suppressed. Thanks to the miracle of modern medicine, he was able to attend school and then university. Through all of this he was supported by a loving family and an understanding doctor.
Stefan Moore had wanted to work on this series because of the US health care crisis, but when he put the idea to Channel 13, they wanted a more international approach because they’d had interest from the BBC. The series then developed a more universal approach to the issues of modern medicine.
