Occupation writer Peter Bowker will return to BBC One with a new drama series about a family whose youngest son is diagnosed with autism.

Based on the Israeli series by Prisoners of War creator Keren Margalit, the six-part drama is described as “a funny and thought-provoking series about parenthood and childhood and what it’s like to have a child who doesn’t fit the mould”.

Bowker also wrote BBC Two’s recent Marvellous drama and David Morrissey’s Blackpool.

The A Word will the story of the Scott family, who work and love and fight like every other family. Then their youngest son is diagnosed with autism and they don’t feel like every other family anymore. They realise that if their son is ever going to communicate, they are going to have to learn how to communicate themselves.

Peter Bowker commented: “I loved the original series and wanted to honour its spirit while writing something new. We have the opportunity here to make something funny, tough, realistic and inventive about contemporary family life and autism. In a society where imperfection increasingly comes with blame attached, it seems timely to look at how autism is regarded both within a family and the wider community – and to give some insight into how that experience might be for the child on the autistic spectrum.”

He added: “It’s a drama full of ideas – about parenthood, about disability, about communication, about community – and will emphatically engage an audience whatever their experience of the subject.”

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