Chris Packham shows the bliss and affecting pitfalls of isolation in an excellent new documentary about living with Aspergers. The 56-year-old presenter publicly announced his autism in last year’s memoir Fingers In The Sparkle Jar. Despite being in the public eye on countless wildlife programmes, including his breakout stint on CBBC’s The Really Wild Show, it wasn’t until 2005 he was officially diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. This documentary however isn’t simply Chris’s journey of self-discovery and realising his differences, instead Asperger’s And Me takes a challenging dive into why this diagnosis shouldn’t be seen as a handicap, while being startlingly honest in execution.
We’re introduced to Packham’s isolated safe haven at his New Forest Sanctuary where he lives with his poodle, Scratchy. His girlfriend of 10 years, Charlotte, doesn’t live here and instead presides on the Isle Of Wight where she runs a zoo. From here, we journey through Chris’s upbringing and how his autistic traits magnified his intense love of wildlife. From eating a tadpole to admitting how he’s never loved anything more in his life than a pet kestrel bird while growing up – the documentary isn’t afraid of spotlighting the strange habits which both sadly and unsurprisingly, left him an enigma to his fellow schoolmates.