Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood

Legal

The BBC South West region started on 20th April 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South West.

BBC One South West HD

BBC Two

BBC One region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

BBC One East Midlands

BBC One Yorks & Lincs

Simulcast of BBC One Wales in high definition. From 29/01/2013

BBC One Wales HD

Simulcast of BBC One Northern Ireland in high definition. From 24/10/2012

BBC One Northern Ireland HD

BBC One North West

BBC One Cambridgeshire HD

BBC One North West HD

The BBC North East & Cumbria region started in 1959 (tbc) as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One North East & Cumbria.

BBC One North East & Cumbria

BBC One London

London

BBC One Channel Islands HD

Formerly part of a wider BBC One South East region. Separated as BBC One London 2001-09-03 following reorganisation of the South East region.

BBC One London HD

BBC One West Midlands

BBC One Cambridgeshire

BBC One East Midlands HD

Formerly part of a wider BBC One South East region that included London and part of the South region. Separated from BBC One London 2001-09-03 following reorganisation of the South East region.

BBC One South East

BBC One Scotland

Scotland

BBC One South East HD

BBC One Yorkshire

The BBC East region started on 1st May 1959 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One East.

BBC One East HD

The BBC South region started on 5th January 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South.

BBC One South HD

Simulcast of network BBC One in high definition. From 03/11/2010

BBC One HD

BBC Northern Ireland region started on 19th April 1955 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One Northern Ireland.

BBC One Northern Ireland

BBC One South

BBC One East

BBC One Oxfordshire

BBC One Wales

Wales

Simulcast of BBC One Scotland in high definition. From 14/01/2013

BBC One Scotland HD

BBC One Oxfordshire HD

BBC One Yorks & Lincs HD

BBC One West Midlands HD

BBC One Channel Islands

The BBC West region started on 1st September 1957 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One West.

BBC One West

BBC One North East & Cumbria HD

BBC One Yorkshire HD

BBC One South West

BBC One West HD

BBC Two England

England

Simulcast of network BBC Two in high definition.

BBC Two HD

BBC Two Northern Ireland

Simulcast of BBC Two Northern Ireland in high definition

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

Simulcast of BBC Two Wales in high definition

BBC Two Wales HD

Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

BBC Two Wales

Joe Wicks

James Ross

Louis Theroux

Shona Thompson

Mindhouse Productions

Documentaries

Factual: Families & Relationships

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

BBC One - Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood

Joe Wicks explores his turbulent childhood and the issue of parental mental health today.

Joe Wicks discovers how his parents’ mental health issues affected him as a child, and the shocking scale of the problem of parental mental health today.

Joe Wicks became a national hero during the first lockdown with his hugely successful 'PE with Joe' workouts. But in the wake of the pandemic, it’s not just the nation’s physical health that concerns him – it’s our mental health.

Many of the thousands of letters and messages Joe has received since he began his workouts have been from parents confiding in him about their own mental health struggles, and their worries for their children. Unfortunately, Joe knows all too well how stressful and confusing it can be when you are a child and your mum and dad aren’t well, and he wants to find out more. Joe opens up on about his mum’s OCD, eating disorders and anxiety, as well as his dad’s heroin addiction and depression. He wants to understand how his family’s illnesses affected him as a child and how we can better support kids and families living in similar situations today.

Before the pandemic, there were 3.7 million children living with a parent who had a moderate or severe mental health condition, and all the data suggests that the number will only have increased in the years since. But even though, without support, children whose parents have mental illness are more likely to go on to have mental health conditions themselves, there is a chronic lack of help for children in this situation.

To discover more, Joe visits Our Time, the UK’s only charity dedicated to working with children of parents with mental illness. But as Joe explores the issue, he starts to ask questions about both his own childhood and how his early life experiences have affected him as an adult.

Startlingly honest and emotional conversations with his mum, dad and brother unearth long-suppressed memories, leading Joe to confront how he dealt with his turbulent home life, and how it forged his identity today.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood

Contributors

Genres

Formats

BBC One South West HD

About BBC One