GMB: Chris Packham opens up on his autism diagnosis

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TV presenter Chris Packham has told how he was so isolated during his university years that he would sit with a bus conductor because interaction with his peers was so challenging.

In an emotional interview ahead of his two-part documentary Inside Our Autistic Minds, the campaigner spoke of the bullying he endured at school.

Yet he refuses to bear grudges because “life’s too short for that”.

Instead Chris, 61, told how he focuses on “making progress, not just entertaining hate”.

The documentary sees him meeting autistic people and their families, including Murray the 20-year-old son of Scottish radio presenter Ken Bruce.

Ken talks of the “painful irony” of him making a living from speaking while his son Murray is non-verbal and communicates using a letter board.

Ken, 72, who is set to move from Radio 2 to join Greatest Hits Radio, said: “It has struck me as cruel as an adult who talks for a living – and it’s not lost on Murray either. I talk a lot and because Murray’s utterances on keyboards are so few and far between, what he says has a real influence. Each word has to be treasured.”

Meanwhile, Chris told of one child who made his life “absolute hell”, but added: “I don’t want to bear grudges, that’s no way forward.

“We may never forget, but we remember less often, that is the key thing. You get past the damaging stage and you learn to manage it.

“You say, ‘life is too short for that’.

“But at the same time the damage is done, it never goes away. It’s the soft underbelly of life, isn’t it.”

He explained: “I went to university for three years and would sit with the bus conductor, because the only place to get out was to be entirely isolated, and any interaction with anyone of my own age invariably went very badly wrong.”

● Inside Our Autistic Minds, Tuesday, BBC Two, 9pm.

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