DVD
Tourette de France

Presenter: Keith Allen
Fabulous Films
RRP: £15.99
FHED2015
Certificate: E
Available 30 April 2007


Keith Allen teams up with a party of teenagers from the Tourette Scotland support group, and travels with them to France on a red Routemaster bus. Led by John Davidson, the group's ultimate goal is a visit to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, to see for themselves the place where their condition was first diagnosed, back in the late 19th century...

In 1989, John's Not Mad, a QED special on the life of Tourette sufferer John Davidson, was partly responsible for school children all over the UK swearing, spitting and being unruly as they mimicked the star of the show. Over night an icon was born, mainly due to the fact that most kids had never heard that level of swearing on TV before. John's Not Mad was the first time many had heard of Tourette's Syndrome. Many years have passed, so what is Davidson up to these days?

That was obviously the basic premise behind this documentary - find out what childhood icon Davidson is up to now. Maybe he'll be a PR officer for Royal Mail, or a London taxi driver, or maybe he's the new head of programming for Channel 5. What seemed like an interesting idea for a documentary could so easily have fallen apart, but thankfully Davidson works for Tourette Scotland, an organisation that helps Scottish suffers and their families.

I loved Keith Allen's previous documentary Little Lady Fauntleroy, but while his take-no-prisoners interviewing technique worked well to show the Harries' for the publicity seeking media-whores that they are, I was a little apprehensive about how he would treat a bus load of young kids with Tourettes.

I needn't have worried. Allen treats them like anyone else - never once patronising them, or making the viewer feel sorry for what is essentially a group of normal teenage kids. It's a brave man that interviews a sufferer who spits on you, while your eating, without raising an eyebrow. But he also takes no crap either. He's just as aware as they are, that they can use their condition to their advantage when they want to. And he presses this point. In the extras on this disc, Allen gets one of the lads to admit that he has used his condition to his advantage in the past - swearing at teachers and blaming it on the illness.

I couldn't help wondering if the ticks and swearing wasn't made worse by the TV cameras. Would the kids have sworn so much if Allen and his crew weren't there?

As well as debunking the myriad preconceptions about the syndrome, Allen looks at the humorous side of society's reaction to Tourettes. By turns funny and touching, it gives the viewer a rare insight into a group of normal, likeable, and occasionally mischievous teenagers who are managing to live fulfilling and rewarding lives, despite the bizarre hand that fate has dealt them.

The biggest star, for me, on this DVD was not Allen, Davidson or any of the other Tourette sufferers, but Dixon the Ghanaian bus driver. What a star. Okay, he can't sing, and his religious beliefs are arguably the result of too many home made Ghanaian cigarettes, but he is the coolest, laid back individual you could ever wish to meet.

Extras include extended and additional scenes; Stills Gallery (set to the tune of Summer Holiday); John's Not Mad trailer; Little Lady Fauntleroy trailer; and text information on Tourette Scotland.

The extended scenes are certainly worth watching as it reveals a few things that should have been left in the finished edit. For example, while watching some men fishing Davidson admits that he had a strong urge to push the men in the river. Allen laughs and says so did he. But it's Allen's next revelation that is really shocking. He admits that he has to keep away from the platform edge and tube stations as he has an urge to push people in front of trains. Word of warning. If you see Allen on a tube platform in the future, keep as far away from the edge as possible.

If I have one complaint, it's that this programme is too short. Sadly we don't really get to know the kid's as well as we should. While we get some interesting interviews with some of the kid's others are left out. But, other than that, this is a f*cking great DVD.

Darren Rea

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