What do vicars do in their spare time? Last week, I went with two friends, both fellow vicars, to see the new film I Swear. I knew from the trailer that it was about a man with Tourette syndrome (TS). What I didn’t know was that it was about a real person: John Davidson who was the subject of a 1989 BBC documentary called John’s Not Mad and who later received an MBE for his efforts to educate people about the condition and support others who have it.
Before that programme, most people had never heard of TS. Nearly 40 years later, everybody (sort of) knows what it is, but it’s still often treated as a punchline – particularly on the comedy circuit.
