A Question of Support - Festive Disability Quiz

Access All – Ep 191

Presented by Emma Tracey

EMMA- Hello, this is Access All, the BBC’s disability and mental health podcast. I’m Emma Tracey. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas. It is definitely the festive period at this point, and we have a very Christmasy quiz coming up for you. Enjoy.

MUSIC- Theme music.

EMMA- Hello and welcome to our very special Christmas episode, our very, very disability quiz, A Question of Support. That’s A Question of Support. Playing this cleverly conceived game I’ve got three lovely guests: I’ve got Gary O’Donoghue, chief America correspondent with the BBC. He is blind and that is relevant. I’ll tell you why in a minute. Hi, Gary.

GARY- Hello, Emma. Hello all. How are you?

EMMA- I’m well. Where are you?

GARY- I am currently in Adelaide in Australia. I am preparing to see England get beaten at cricket again.

EMMA- Ah, so you’re actually on your holidays?

GARY- I am on my holidays yeah.

EMMA- Wow.

GARY- So, this is a guest appearance.

EMMA- Well, we are honoured, sir. Are you ready for this very special quiz?

GARY- By no means.

EMMA- Okay, excellent news, excellent news. We’ve also got Juliette Burton, comedian, presenter, journalist. If I was to say all her diagnoses we’d be here all day. But mental health is quite a big one, isn’t it, Juliette?

JULIETTE- It is.

EMMA- Which is also relevant and I’ll tell you why in a minute. How are you?

JULIETTE- I’m very well, thank you. December’s always a bit dark and seems to take forever, but I’m loving being here.

EMMA- Christmas shopping?

JULIETTE- Yes. I think I’m pretty much done. I think I got a couple of socks yesterday online and I think that’s it. I’m going to be doing a lot of writing over December. It’s going to be gearing up for a new project in 2026.

EMMA- I’m excited to hear about those next year. And we have actor from Coronation Street no less, comedian from Britain’s Got Talent no less, we’ve got Jack Carroll representing the cerebral palsy crew!

JACK- Well, no pressure, no pressure [laughter]. You know what they get like if they feel you’ve done wrong.

EMMA- Does the WhatsApp group blow up no end?

JACK- Exactly, I’ll be getting calls no end.

EMMA- How are you?

JACK- I’m very good. Thank you for having me. I’m slightly nervous about the nature of the quiz; I’ve just had it explained to me. But I’m very excited to be here.

EMMA- And what are you up to at the moment?

JACK- I am gearing up for my new standup tour, the Fall Guy, which starts in February 2026.

EMMA- The Fall Guy?

JACK- Yes.

EMMA- How did you pick that name, Jack Carroll?

JACK- I would love to say there is some grand thematic reason for it, but actually I just thought it was a funny title.

EMMA- Do you fall over on the regular?

JACK- Not as regularly as some people may think, and more regularly than others may think.

EMMA- Do you know, I just saw a Facebook post from Lost Voice Guy, another very famous comedian with cerebral palsy.

JACK- He’ll be ringing me if I lose.

EMMA- Will he? Well, he was actually just saying that he missed a couple of gigs at the weekend because he fell over and split his head open.

JULIETTE- I saw that, I saw his posts.

EMMA- It’s part of the disability life.

JACK- Yeah, an accidental stage dive is always a possibility.

JULIETTE- The Fall Guy is a fantastic title. It’s almost as good as A Question of Support.

JACK- Yeah, I wouldn’t want to…

EMMA- I wouldn’t go that far [laughter].

JACK- …yeah, say that I’ve reached those heady heights. I don’t think so.

JULIETTE- The word play is strong here.

EMMA- Will I explain the game to you?

JULIETTE- You may, please.

EMMA- It is very, very simple. Each player is out for themselves, and the only aim is to score as many points as possible. It’s a play on A Question of Sport, that very, very famous quiz show. And it is not the picture round because I would not be very good at hosting that, and Gary you would not win that one.

GARY- The what happens next thing you mean? [Laughter]

EMMA- It’s actually based on the home and away round. You can say that you want a question about your own disability, impairment, condition, diagnosis, way of life, or about a random one. Your own is home, you get one point for that. A random one that gets you two points, if you get the random one. So, it’s your choice. It’s tactics as to how many points you get. Let’s get started [music]. We’ll go for Gary first, because obviously blind people are my favourites. Are you going to go for a home or an away question?

GARY- I’m going to go for a home question just to see if I can find my feet.

EMMA- So, that is a question about blindness and visual impairment.

GARY- Right.

EMMA- How many visually impaired people are there in the United Kingdom?

GARY- Doesn’t that depend?

EMMA- On what?

GARY- Are you talking about people whose sight cannot be corrected by glasses, that’s one measure? Totally blind people another measure. Am I nitpicking here?

EMMA- We’re talking about an estimate of the number, the full number of visually impaired people, and it’s by the RNIB.

GARY- I’m going to say, if it doesn’t include these people that can’t have their sight corrected with glasses, 600,000.

EMMA- That’s way off the mark actually.

GARY- Oh my god.

EMMA- Yeah. Anyone, to pick up a half a point?

JULIETTE- To steal it?

EMMA- Yeah.

JACK- I would say 1.2 million.

EMMA- Still way off the mark.

JULIETTE- I’m going to say 3 million.

EMMA- Oh wow. I don’t think anyone gets a point for that. It’s 2 million.

JULIETTE- Oh, I nearly said that.

GARY- I nearly said that too.

EMMA- So, Gary, no points for you.

GARY- No points for me.

EMMA- You see, this is the thing, you need to know, you may not be at an advantage going for a home question.

GARY- Clearly.

EMMA- Right, we’ll go for Juliette next because she’s next in my…

JULIETTE- I’m right here. Bring it on.

EMMA- Home or away?

JULIETTE- I think I’m going to stick with the strategy of Gary and go home, just to get some confidence up. Although that didn’t work out for you, Gary.

EMMA- SSRIs, it’s a class of drug used on conditions like depression and anxiety. But what does SSRI stand for?

JULIETTE- It’s serotonin reuptake inhibitors. I’ve forgotten what the other S is. How could I have forgotten the other S?

EMMA- Give it a shot.

JACK- I do know it.

GARY- I think she gets that.

JULIETTE- Okay, thank you. Is it not three out of four is enough? It is super serotonin [laughter].

EMMA- Go on, show your knowledge, Jack Carroll.

JACK- It’s selective.

EMMA- Well done! Wow guys, that’s amazing!

JULIETTE- Yeah, but you see when you take them you don’t actually care what it stands for, so [laughs].

JACK- But then again it’s selective so yours could have been correct.

EMMA- I think after that Juliette gets a point. And that was very, very good, Jack, but I’m not going to add anything to your score for that. Sorry, I’m very harsh.

GARY- Harsh.

JACK- It’s okay, I’ll need some SSRIs after that judgement [laughter].

EMMA- Right, Jack it’s you.

JACK- Lovely.

EMMA- Home or away?

JACK- Can I buck the trend and take an away question, please?

EMMA- Yeah.

JULIETTE- Wow.

GARY- Go for it.

EMMA- Of course home would have been about cerebral palsy because that will be your specialist subject obviously.

JACK- Indeed.

EMMA- That’s what you’ve got.

JACK- From a very young age, yeah [laughter].

GARY- A lifelong devotion.

EMMA- A lifelong devotion, exactly. I do realise how medicalised this quiz is coming across. It’s clearly the pinnacle of my career to talk about impairments in this way. But anyway, A Question of Support, a cleverly conceived game, let’s go for an away question.

JULIETTE- It’s never not going to be funny that title [laughter].

EMMA- This one’s about pain and biology. What is the main difference between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis?

JACK- One is nerves and one is joints, right? But I don’t know which.

JULIETTE- I could help a little bit with a guess. I thought one was about joints and bones and the other one is about tissue.

JACK- Go on then, so I think osteoarthritis is bone pain and rheumatoid is tissue pain.

EMMA- Okay, what I have here on my card is that osteo is caused by wear and tear, so it’s wear and tear.

JACK- Ah.

JULIETTE- Ah.

EMMA- But rheumatoid, which is the interesting one [laughter]…

JULIETTE- Oh, you’ve got a favourite [laughter].

EMMA- I cannot have a favourite arthritis.

JULIETTE- Sorry, listeners, so sorry for anyone.

GARY- Division one and two arthritis.

EMMA- Isn’t there a hierarchy in every disability?

JULIETTE- Is there? That’s a different game, the Top Trumps cards.

EMMA- We can do that later. Rheumatoid is around where your autoimmune system attacks your joints.

JULIETTE- I should have known that.

EMMA- Well, you didn’t, so. Okay, we’re back round to Gary O’Donoghue. Before I start rustling too much, Gary are you a home or an away?

GARY- Okay, well I’m going to have to make up some ground here, aren’t I, so, I’m going to go away.

EMMA- It would have been about blindness if it was a home question, but it’s not, it’s an away question. It’s a bold tactic.

GARY- Well, I could pretend I’m something else. Can I pretend I’m something else? [Laughter]

EMMA- No, Gary, no, no, you can’t do that. This one is about learning disability. What is the name of the form of sign made famous by Mr Tumble that some people with learning disabilities use to help them communicate?

GARY- Oh, do you know I have literally no idea.

EMMA- I think one of you can steal this. Any ideas?

JACK- I am not an avid Mr Tumble viewer, so.

JULIETTE- No, I’m afraid I haven’t done that homework [laughter].

EMMA- Okay, you haven’t a clue, do you?

JULIETTE- Had I but known I would have loved to have watched Mr Tumble.

EMMA- Mr Tumble’s great.

JULIETTE- So, the question again, it’s a sign?

EMMA- It’s a form of sign, like a language.

JULIETTE- A language, like a gesture?

EMMA- It’s a simple, straightforward form of sign for words like eat and drink.

GARY- It’s not two fingers, is it?

EMMA- Gary!

GARY- [Laughs]

EMMA- No, it’s not two fingers, no. Although anybody is eligible to use that, including people with learning disabilities [laughter]. It is actually called Makaton, and it’s named after three people called Margaret, Kathy and Tony who were in Botley’s Park Hospital, which was an institution where 1,100 people lived. They worked there and they came up with it in 1968 and it was very, very, very, very successful.

JULIETTE- I hosted an event this month for Sense, the charity Sense.

EMMA- Oh yeah, deaf blind.

JULIETTE- Yeah, deaf blind and people with disabilities and complex needs. And I made a fool of myself because I revealed to them that I did know some sign language, but mainly swear words [laughter]. That wasn’t what they were hoping for!

EMMA- And you have to do them on people’s hands as well if they’re deaf.

JULIETTE- Oh it was so cool, it was amazing. I loved watching it. And I want to learn it now. That’s my 2026 goal is to learn it.

GARY- You need to teach us those off air, Juliette.

JULIETTE- Yeah, I will teach you the swear words [laughter].

EMMA- Juliette, home or away?

JULIETTE- Away, let’s do it.

EMMA- Away, wow. I’m going to run out of away questions at this rate.

JULIETTE- I can go home if you like?

EMMA- No, no, no.

JULIETTE- I don’t want to go home. I’m having fun. I’m having fun right now [laughter]. I would like to stay please.

EMMA- We’re talking about mobility, and I can’t tell you what kind. If you were doing a home question of course it would have been about mental health. What does a white can with red bands indicate, Juliette?

JULIETTE- Oh, I saw someone using one the other day.

GARY- Very good.

JULIETTE- Okay, so red bands is going to be something very specific. It’s going to be visual impairment surely?

EMMA- Plus.

JULIETTE- Plus mobility.

EMMA- No, plus?

JULIETTE- Plus something else?

EMMA- What we were just talking about a minute ago.

JULIETTE- Oh deaf blindness, they’re deaf blind, really?

EMMA- Yeah.

JULIETTE- Oh, but you gave that to me. I don’t feel like I earned that.

GARY- Take it, take it.

EMMA- No, that’s okay, take your points.

JULIETTE- Okay, I’m taking the points.

EMMA- Two points for Juliette.

JULIETTE- Merry Christmas.

EMMA- Right, Jack, home or away?

JACK- Hello. May I go home please?

JULIETTE- No, you’re having fun [laughter].

JACK- Yes. I was going to say that should put me on solid footing, but if the question is going to be about cerebral palsy then maybe that’s not the best choice of words [laughter].

JULIETTE- Jack has come wearing a very smart suit, so you came to do business in this.

JACK- Exactly.

EMMA- Oh did he, right okay. Okay this one: what is the term for when only one side of your body is affected by cerebral palsy? Because cerebral palsy is your home subject.

JACK- It is indeed.

EMMA- So, what’s the name of the term when one side of your body is affected by cerebral palsy, for example one arm, one leg?

JACK- It’s some kind of plegia.

EMMA- Yes.

JACK- But I don’t know. I think I’m diplegic.

EMMA- Oh, what does that mean?

JACK- That’s two sides of one half of the body I believe.

JULIETTE- Do it etymologically.

EMMA- Okay. Is it your arms or your legs?

JACK- Legs.

EMMA- Think of a name for half.

JACK- Is it hemiplegic?

EMMA- Yes! Wow!

JACK- There we go.

GARY- Very good.

EMMA- One point for Jack.

JACK- I’m really pleased to have got that to be honest.

EMMA- Well done. Points at the end of round one. This is the end of round one, by the way. Gary O’Donoghue you’ve zero points.

GARY- Oh dear.

EMMA- Juliette Burton three points.

JULIETTE- Yay!

EMMA- And Jack one point.

JACK- Wow.

EMMA- There’s loads of time though.

JACK- Three is quite the lead there.

JULIETTE- I’m feeling good. This might be the highlight of my year [laughter].

MUSIC- We’re not just a podcast. Find Access All on social media and read our articles on the BBC News website.

EMMA- All right, round two. [Music] Gary, home or away?

GARY- Oh, what to do? I’m going to go home.

EMMA- Okay, fine.

JULIETTE- I’m really appreciating that Gary’s on a screen decorated by tinsel, which makes it look, Gary, like you are quite festive right now. You have really gone to town on your headgear of multicoloured tinsel.

EMMA- That’s so you, so you Gary.

GARY- It’s very me yes. I did play Father Christmas once during a From the Edge episode, which was unpleasant actually because the costume smelt rather rancid from the BBC costume store.

EMMA- Ew!

JACK- Next time you’re on Capitol Hill I’m expecting a tinsel halo. That would be a great addition.

GARY- Absolutely, absolutely.

EMMA- Another highlight of Gary’s From the Edge career was when he got his sight back at Lourdes in France.

GARY- Oh yes, that upset a few people.

EMMA- Gary, home question for you: who are the famous 70s singing duo with one blind man and a sighted woman who reached number one with the song Welcome Home in 1973, after being successful on Opportunity Knocks [song plays]?

GARY- Do you know, I saw these two live.

EMMA- Wow, really?

GARY- In a holiday camp in Devon.

JACK- [Laughs]

GARY- Just asserting my working class background, you see.

EMMA- Can you sing along?

GARY- I cannot.

EMMA- Okay. You could be him. You could be him.

GARY- He did wear dark glasses a lot, didn’t he, I think from memory?

EMMA- Don’t they all? All the blind men who sing wear dark glasses.

GARY- They do now, they do now with these smart glasses. Everyone suddenly thinks it’s okay to wear dark glasses, including me.

EMMA- Yeah, this is very strange, blind people have started to wear glasses now because they’ve got the AI in them that tell you what’s going on because you’ve cameras and stuff. Anyway, I digress. What is the actual answer?

GARY- Peters and Lee.

EMMA- Yes, Gary, yes it is.

GARY- Oh, I’m on the scoreboard.

EMMA- Two points.

JACK- I didn’t know. I was waiting for the answer, but no.

JULIETTE- I didn’t know either. Well done, Gary.

GARY- They were of their time I think is the way to put it.

EMMA- They were not a married couple. Diane Lee is actually married to one of the guys from Wizard, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day.

JACK- That is festive.

EMMA- And Lenny Peters, who was the blind one, actually died in 1992, so there you go. Gary’s got one point.

GARY- Hallelujah.

EMMA- Juliette you’re next. Home or away?

JULIETTE- I’m going to go home. I’m going to try and keep my lead, keep my lead strong.

EMMA- Oh, I knew you’d be strategic. I said that.

JULIETTE- You also said that you were running out of away questions [laughter].

EMMA- Oh bless you, bless you. Who is the president of the charity Mind?

JULIETTE- Oh no, oh no, oh no. This is going to be my head hanging in shame. They are a great charity. I remember the, I know the CEO used to be Paul Farmer and then it changed to a wonderful woman. I’m going to have to throw it open to everybody else because I…

EMMA- A very famous man.

JULIETTE- Oh, Stephen Fry?

EMMA- Yeah.

JULIETTE- Oh, then I know that [laughs].

EMMA- You actually did know that, you just needed a little…

JULIETTE- My confidence was, even though I’m in the lead, I was like, I don’t know anything, I really don’t.

EMMA- Ah. It’s Stephen Fry, absolutely.

JULIETTE- Amazing, okay Stephen Fry.

EMMA- He’s been the president since 2011 and of course he had a famous documentary.

JULIETTE- President. I was going for CEO and that’s not the thing to go for. It was president, yeah.

EMMA- Yeah, it’s the figurehead role, isn’t it. He very famously had a documentary in 2006 called The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive about having bipolar.

JULIETTE- Fun fact: my first ever therapy appointment my mum gave me an article about Stephen Fry, an interview with him about his conditions and that was when I was 14. And he’s always been somebody that I’ve looked up to at least for his openness.

EMMA- Amazing. Well, there you go, he’s doing his job. Well done. Jack, home or away?

JACK- I am going to go home please.

EMMA- Which American comedian with cerebral palsy, because that’s your home subject, cowrote and starred in a BBC comedy called Jerk where he played a jerk?

JACK- Ah, that is fellow comic and funny bloke Tim Renkow.

EMMA- Yes!

JULIETTE- I knew it, it was right there.

EMMA- Right back to you, Gary. Home or away?

GARY- I’m going to go away again. Can you give me an easy one?

EMMA- This is actually for you. Polio is the chosen disability. How do you feel about polio, Gary?

GARY- I know two things about polio.

EMMA- Yeah? One of them is the answer to this question probably. What are the two things you know?

GARY- The two things I know is that we used to get the vaccination on a sugar lump, and the other is that FDR had it.

EMMA- Right, here’s your question. Which US president contracted polio? [Laughter]

GARY- Now, let me just think about this one very carefully.

EMMA- And used a wheelchair?

GARY- Let me rack my brains. Ah yes, FDR.

EMMA- Full name being?

GARY- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

EMMA- Yes it was. And he wasn’t seen often in his wheelchair, was he?

GARY- Oh no, no.

EMMA- He kind of kept it on the down low.

GARY- Very much so, yeah, it was hidden. It was basically hidden from the public completely. They would sort of prop him up. I don’t know if you call them callipers anymore, but effectively in leg iron type things to make him stand up at times.

EMMA- And his bodyguards I think as well would help to prop him up too. But there now is a statue of FDR in Washington DC and that was put there in 1997.

GARY- Do you know, I did not know that.

EMMA- Yeah, and you live there.

GARY- I know. How outrageous is that? I must go and find that.

JULIETTE- Leave Adelaide now and go over there to find it [laughter].

GARY- Two points please, two points.

EMMA- Gary you’ve got two points. I definitely didn’t choose that one for you, I definitely just went random, definitely, definitely. But two points for Gary O’Donoghue. Now Juliette, home or away?

JULIETTE- Let’s go home again.

EMMA- Especially a mental health focused question especially for Juliette. That’s her home subject. How many people experience a mental health problem in England in any given year?

JULIETTE- So, it’s famously one in four is the stat.

EMMA- That’s what I have on my card, so you’ve already won.

JULIETTE- But we need to say that that is only people who are diagnosed, A, and also people who are willing to come forward. So, there are highly likely to be far, far, far more people who have mental ill health and mental illness conditions that are either undiagnosed or are not seeing a GP at the moment.

EMMA- These figures are from Mind, and I guess they can only count what they can see.

JULIETTE- Exactly. So, one in four apparently.

EMMA- Right. And six in 100 people experience PTSD or complex PTSD. Just a little extra for you there. That’s one point for you Juliette. Well done.

JULIETTE- Thank you.

EMMA- Jack, home or away?

JACK- Can I go home please?

EMMA- You can.

JACK- Since I had success with it last time.

EMMA- Here we go: spastic cerebral palsy is the most common, caused by stiff muscles. It causes problem with movement. But what is dyskinetic cerebral palsy?

JACK- Well, is that a kind of shaking and tremors?

EMMA- Yes. It’s involuntary movements and coordination issues. Well done.

JACK- Lovely, I’ll take that.

GARY- Well done.

JACK- They all count. It’s a tap in, but they all count.

JULIETTE- They all count.

EMMA- So, there are four types of cerebral palsy.

JULIETTE- Are there? Did you know that, Jack?

JACK- I knew there was more than spastic.

EMMA- Could you name them for an extra point?

JACK- No [laughter].

JULIETTE- Gary, John, Penelope palsy.

EMMA- It is actually ataxic and mixed.

JACK- I think I knew ataxic.

EMMA- What are you?

JACK- I am spastic.

EMMA- Okay, thank you for that. There we go, end of round two. What are the scores? What’s on the board, Miss Ford? At the end of round two Jack and Gary have three points, Juliette Burton has five points.

JULIETTE- Yeah! Cor, this is better than Strictly because I don’t have to do any dancing.

EMMA- You can dance if you like.

JULIETTE- Sure, happy dance.

JACK- That is quite the lead.

EMMA- Right, this is the last round. [Music] I think I’m being told to make it slightly more quickfire, but with me that’s not going to happen.

JULIETTE- We’re bantering too much.

EMMA- Gary, home or away?

GARY- It’s got to be away, hasn’t it? I can crash and burn.

EMMA- Right, Gary, you’re blind.

GARY- I am.

EMMA- That’s your home subject. Your away subject this section is about being deaf. What is IS?

GARY- What is IS?

EMMA- In terms of the deaf community, Gary [laughter].

GARY- Okay. Any clues?

EMMA- It’s similar to BSL and ASL but it’s not.

JACK- I think I’ve got it.

EMMA- What’s the I?

GARY- Wait, wait, wait. How about…

EMMA- So, BSL is British.

GARY- …international?

EMMA- Yes! International Sign. It is a simplified pidgin language that’s used at big international events where lots of people from different countries who use sign language come together, and it’s to help them communicate with each other.

GARY- You mentioned pidgin there, if anyone has not been on to the BBC pidgin site and read their news stories it is a beautiful language.

EMMA- It really is.

JULIETTE- Really?

GARY- It’s fantastic to read.

EMMA- And so many people read it as well.

GARY- It’s like music when people read it out loud. It’s fantastic.

EMMA- And what’s interesting is we read it with a screen reader, so we are interpreting it but the screen reader is doing its own thing as well. It’s really, really lovely. This IS is kind of more gesture-y than…

GARY- It’s sign language, yeah.

EMMA- Yeah, and it’s good for international conferences and stuff. Excellent. Juliette, home or away?

JULIETTE- How many questions do we get in this round?

EMMA- You’ve got two more questions left.

JULIETTE- Two more questions left. I’m going to go h…no, away, I’m going to go away. The pressure!

EMMA- No worries, no worries, no worries.

JULIETTE- Oh no, it’s exciting, it’s exciting. My heart’s actually going, I’m actually feeling it. Can’t let our disabled community down.

EMMA- This one is actually about autism, so it’s kind of a home subject still.

JULIETTE- All right, go for it. Yes, I do have this condition [laughs].

EMMA- Is it a condition though?

JULIETTE- Aw well, we don’t have time [laughter].

EMMA- Okay, what is the word for the range of physical and motor movements and sounds that some autistic people do to…

JULIETTE- Stims!

EMMA- Yes! I was going to say to regulate big emotions or just for the pure joy of it.

JULIETTE- Stims.

JACK- Speaking of big emotions, you just got one there, right there.

JULIETTE- I did, I just leapt out of my chair. I knew it!

EMMA- Do you have a stim?

JULIETTE- I didn’t realise. I’m late diagnosed autistic and with ADHD. And I either use fidget spinners on pens, specifically on pens. I used to when I was a child, and I realise I still do it, I twiddle my hair in a very specific way that’s very fast. I’m doing it right now. It’s very soothing around my fingers and I can tie knots in it. And I didn’t realise I did. Some of my friends also tap their knees and things. But yes, I do have stims.

EMMA- Anyone else have a stim they want to tell me about?

JACK- Not consciously. I don’t know. Maybe someone can pick up on the video.

JULIETTE- My therapist also recommended that I use hairbands on my wrist to tie knots as well, because it does help me focus a lot better.

EMMA- Gary, any thoughts? Any stims?

GARY- I’m not sure it counts. when as a child I was sent away to school I used to fold the corners of pillowcases into little sharp corners and dig them under my fingernails.

EMMA- Yes, that’s a stim.

GARY- Is that it?

EMMA- That’s definitely a stim, and also a good way of keeping your fingernails clean I suppose.

GARY- Very good for that too [laughter].

EMMA- So, you don’t do it now though?

GARY- No.

EMMA- Do you do anything with your fingernails now to keep yourself focused?

GARY- No. Well, I have this terrible thing where I pick my fingers when I’m under pressure, pick the skin at the side of them and make them bleed.

EMMA- I think what we’re saying here though, I know we’re being ridiculously medical with this quiz and very unusual for Access All, but I think what’s coming out here is that it’s all mixed up and it’s all very interesting and life based, and we all have our different things.

GARY- Lots and lots of blind people, and I was one of them when I lost my sight first, poke their eyes. You know, a knuckle in the eye.

EMMA- To get feedback I think.

GARY- No, I think it’s a comfort. It seems to provide some comfort. It’s too common to be a one off. I mean, I think people grow out of it a bit, but lots of blind children I knew when I was younger would put a knuckle in the corner of the eye, a sort of second knuckle.

EMMA- Yeah. And a lot of blind kids in my boarding school, me included, would rock, so rock backwards and forwards.

GARY- Oh yeah, people did do that.

EMMA- That’s kind of stimming stimulation as well. I think when it’s not looking around you as well, you know, you're not getting stimulation, the same levels of stimulation from beyond yourself.

JULIETTE- So, for you it’s like it’s a way of stimulating yourself more? Whereas for me it’s like I’ve been overstimulated so I need to sooth myself.

EMMA- Yeah.

JULIETTE- A lot of people with autism who are female, who are late diagnosed, apparently there’s a link between that and eating disorders, which is my first diagnosed mental health condition. Because, again, managing overwhelming thoughts and feelings through food. It can be linked to so many things. We’re only just at the tip of understanding it.

EMMA- Yeah, absolutely. Jack, your question, home or away?

JACK- Away please. I need to start making up some ground.

EMMA- Okay, so if it were home it would be cerebral palsy. As we’re away we’re going to talk about cystic fibrosis. In people with cystic fibrosis what substance is normally elevated in their sweat?

JACK- Hmm…

EMMA- You know the way cystic fibrosis there’s a lot of coughing, build-up of mucus?

JACK- Yes.

EMMA- So, this is something that would ordinarily break that down.

JACK- Is it, uh…

EMMA- Well, what’s in sweat?

JULIETTE- Alcohol [laughter].

EMMA- Is that what’s in yours?

JACK- Around this time of year indeed.

JULIETTE- Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.

JACK- To break down mucus is it some kind of…?

EMMA- It’s also in tears.

JACK- Oh, salt.

EMMA- Yes.

JULIETTE- Yay!

EMMA- Well done. I’ve become the helper.

JULIETTE- You’re supporting, which is appropriate in this particular Question of Support.

GARY- Yeah, exactly.

EMMA- Yeah, I’m a supportive quiz host.

JACK- Indeed.

EMMA- Do we give Jack two points for that seeing as I helped quite a lot?

JULIETTE- Yeah.

EMMA- Yeah?

JULIETTE- It’s Christmas.

JACK- It’s a reasonable adjustment for my lack of knowledge [laughter]. Goodwill.

EMMA- It’s Christmas goodwill.

JACK- I don’t think ignorance counts as a disability [laughter].

EMMA- We’re on our final three questions. Gary O’Donoghue, which would you prefer, home or away?

GARY- I’m going all in for away.

EMMA- Okay. In numbers, Gary O’Donoghue, what is the estimated true prevalence of ADHD amongst adults in England? So, that’s going beyond people who have a diagnosis formally.

GARY- Okay, I’m going to say it’s probably 10%, so I’m going to say 4 million.

EMMA- Oh, good guess, but way off the mark.

GARY- Oh. So, not a good guess [laughter].

EMMA- Well, as in it is high, but just not quite that high. Juliette, I’d say you’re going to know this.

JULIETTE- I don’t know if I do.

EMMA- The reason I thought you would know it is because you’re really stats-y, and also once you get into something your hyperfocus is amazing and you know lots of stuff.

JULIETTE- That is true, but it’s mainly about comic books and video games [laughter]. Let’s go, okay, I’m going to say 3.2.

EMMA- Oh well done, 2.5 million, 4.3% of the population.

GARY- Ah.

JULIETTE- Now I know that I’m not going to forget it.

EMMA- No, definitely not. And that’s from November 2025, so that’s NHS Digital estimation.

JULIETTE- That’s already a month out of date. There’s more of us now [laughter].

EMMA- Juliette, home or away?

JULIETTE- I’ll go home.

EMMA- Okay, cool. Which artist, famous for painting starry night skies…

JULIETTE- Van Gogh.

EMMA- Yes [laughter]. He struggled with his mental health and he admitted himself to a French psychiatric hospital in 1889.

JULIETTE- Big fan of his for obvious reasons. But yeah, I went to see loads of exhibitions about him in Amsterdam because he painted there and lived there for a while.

EMMA- And why are you so interested in him?

JULIETTE- Because of his mental ill health. Starry Night he could see the energies and he could see things that other people couldn’t see. And I’ve had hallucinations. And I love connecting with artists throughout the centuries who have had similar experiences because it feels like it connects us beyond time and space.

EMMA- Wow. But you see this is the thing, when we were doing this quiz it was like, will people want to talk about their disabilities, will they not, are they interested, do they know stuff, do they not. And I think it’s a mixed bag, isn’t it, you either do think about it or you don’t. Do you think, do you know lots about cerebral palsy do you think, Jack?

JACK- I don’t know as much as I possibly should. It’s always interesting to find out something you didn’t know where you go, oh that’s connected to that. But because you’re used to it you don’t even think of it as a facet of the… Like the tiredness and energy management and that kind of thing is something that becomes a little bit more prevalent as I’ve got older, but I didn’t really think of that as part of the thing.

EMMA- That is the thing often with people who have got cerebral palsy, the amount of pressure you put on your limbs and everything, walking for all this time in a way that is overcompensating or using your frame or whatever, as you do, it gets a little harder as you get older sometimes.

JACK- Yeah.

EMMA- Gary, being blind is that something that you think about, are interested in, know lots about? I think yes.

GARY- No. Well, no, I don’t think I do. And because they never really knew what caused my blindness, I don’t have a specific blindness related disease, RP or anything like that, so I’ve never really been part of one of those sort of groupings within the blind community.

EMMA- No, me neither. Random.

GARY- Yeah. So, if you said to me what is RP I would struggle to tell you.

EMMA- Yeah. But are you interested in the aspects of blind community and blind life?

GARY- Of course, yeah, increasingly so I think over the years.

EMMA- Why increasingly so?

GARY- I think you resolve, well I resolve a lot of things about being comfortable with it over the years, and try to get the balance between the extent to which it is you, part of you, not part of who you are, you know. Those are my views of the balance between all those different things has shifted I think over time. It’s endlessly fascinating though because you can’t really know how much you are shaped by it, not shaped by it etc.

JULIETTE- I always say that I am who I am because of and in spite of my conditions.

GARY- Yeah.

JULIETTE- I think you become who you are, you learn certain personality aspects of yourself because you are living with those conditions. But that’s not everything you are. You are the space in between those things.

JACK- I think a lot of positive things can come from that as well. I think my verbal dexterity and stuff came from the fact that I couldn’t run and get what I wanted. I had to learn to ask for what I wanted, and I got good at talking through that and all that kind of thing.

GARY- Yeah.

EMMA- And making people feel comfortable when you’re sitting there trying to make stuff happen without being able to rush around and make it happen.

JACK- Yes.

GARY- Yeah.

EMMA- You learn how to do it in a way that people don’t feel like they’re doing a massive favour or that they don’t feel upset or bad about doing it for you.

GARY- And having to manage other people from an early age as well.

JACK- Would that being said about a massive favour, I’m hoping that you’ll give me a point on this next round [laughter].

EMMA- All right, last question, Jack. Home or away?

JACK- I’m going to have to go away. I’m going to have go all in.

GARY- Reach for the stars I say.

EMMA- Yeah.

JACK- Even though my heads says go home, I need to go away.

EMMA- Well, as Gary O’Donoghue and S Club 7 would say, reach for the stars [laughter]. Which British mathematician was well known as a code breaker struggled with is mental health and was posthumously pardoned by the British government for being gay many, many years later?

JACK- That would be Alan Turing.

EMMA- Well done, good job. That is two points for you. And at the end of this game, what would we call it, the end of this marathon…

GARY- Ordeal, no?

EMMA- Ordeal [laughter].

JULIETTE- End of the first pilot episode of [laughter]. The series will be coming soon.

EMMA- At the end of A Question of Support…

JULIETTE- This is so tense!

JACK- I have no idea.

EMMA- …Gary O’Donoghue at the bottom of the leaderboard. He’s very good at politics.

JULIETTE- Well done, Gary.

EMMA- Very good at being a journalist, but he’s got five points.

JULIETTE- Well played, well played mate.

EMMA- In the middle of the leaderboard, second place is Jack Carroll.

JULIETTE- Oh my god!

EMMA- With seven points. Which means that the winner is Juliette Burton with eight points, and I’m so glad.

JULIETTE- I’m going to do a victory lap! I’m going to run around!

EMMA- She’s just showing off, Jack, that she can run around the studio [laughter].

JACK- Yes, indeed.

EMMA- Can you get me a glass of water while you’re up?

JULIETTE- I can. Here you go.

JACK- Indeed.

EMMA- Thank you.

JULIETTE- I would like to thank my friends. I would like to thank the BBC. I would like to thank Emma for giving me the easy questions.

EMMA- I would like to thank your hyperfocus and your number of diagnoses for making this easier for you.

GARY- Next stop the Oscars.

EMMA- Would you ever get to cover the Oscars, Gary?

GARY- No, I know nothing about films.

EMMA- I would like to see you on the red carpet.

GARY- Would you? In a red dress?

EMMA- In a red dress, yeah, picking your fingernails [laughter]. Thank you to all three contestants for being fantastic supports, Gary O’Donoghue, Jack Carroll who has a tour coming up apparently.

JACK- Yes, The Fall Guy, tickets now available.

EMMA- And Juliette Burton, our winner!

JULIETTE- Thank you so much. If anyone would like to come and see me win on stage then I have comedy shows coming up in 2026, lots of different shows, so you can go on my website and check them out.

EMMA- Thank you so much everybody, and Merry Christmas.

ALL- Merry Christmas!