Former cricketer and Top Gear presenter Freddie Flintoff has been announced to front a new two-part ITV series titled Freddie Flintoff: Understanding Tourette's, which will see him learn more about the condition.
The show will follow Flintoff as he travels around UK, meeting people with Tourette's at different stages of living with it, and different ways of it presenting.
He intends to find out what it's like to have Tourette's, shine a light on the stigma and misconceptions in society, and examine the journey of receiving a diagnosis and support.
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In the announcement, Flintoff explained that he wanted to do this series due to feeling a personal connection.
"Working with young people has always been a huge passion point for me, and Tourette's is a condition that primarily starts in childhood," he said.
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"The thought of kids isolating themselves and facing such strong stigma both breaks my heart and resonates deeply with me – after my accident, I wouldn't leave my own house and that's a feeling I would never want anyone, let alone a kid, to go through.
"The events at the BAFTA Film Awards and the online discourse that followed only emphasised how much stigma is still out there – whilst the film made such positive strides for this community, these secondary responses seemed to set those advances right back.
"If there is any way I can help those affected, working directly with them and experts in the field, and also help spread awareness and push for change, then that is what I'll do. I hope this community will bring the change and understanding they deserve."
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The "online discourse" that Freddie refers to is from last year's highly-acclaimed film I Swear, which tells the story of activist and campaigner John Davidson MBE.
At the BAFTA Film Awards, a moment where Davidson involuntarily made a slur against Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo wasn't edited out of the broadcast, and clips of it spread across the internet like wildfire, sometimes shared without the context of his condition.
Freddie Flintoff: Understanding Tourette's will air on ITV. It does not currently have a release window.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
