When John Bishop's son, Joe, started to lose his hearing as a teenager due to a progressive autoimmune disease, the comedian didn't quite know how to deal with the life-changing diagnosis for his eldest, opting to go down the road of trying to 'fix' the problem for his son, rather than opting to embrace the deaf community.
An hour-long ITV documentary, Life After Deaf, followed John and Joe as they try and reconnect and learn British Sign Language (BSL) together, with Joe emotionally explaining how he felt when he started to become deaf a decade ago. Stand-up Bishop, also aimed to complete a gig fully in BSL by the end of the episode.
At the start of the episode Joe, who confessed he'd always had a fear about talking about his deafness, said: "Me and my dad have never really sat down and had a proper heart-to-heart about it. When I was a kid, that was the time I should have said more and I didn't. Now I don't really see the point much because you know, I'm 27 now talking about stuff and when you're a kid, there comes a point when you have to move on."
