On Saturday 11th July 2009 I went to the Adsetts learning centre, which is a part of Sheffield Hallam University, because in June 2009 I had heard that they had on DVD a copy of the "Foolish Wise Ones", a QED documentary into the world of Autistic Savants, which I haven't seen since February 1987. As luck had it, what I heard was correct.
To my knowledge, the BBC hasn't repeated it in the years since, nor have they repeated it since July 2009, to date. Of course, I have a personal interest in the programme, having been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome more than 13 years after it was shown, but I was ten-and-a-half years of age when I last saw it, and I wanted to see if my memory of the programme was as I remembered it.
The world is a very different place now to in February 1987. The public did not have widespread access to the Internet. You couldn't design your own website or go on Facebook or create your own Blog in February 1987. There was no Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, Whats App, Snap Chat or any kind of social media back then, and not many people had mobile phones. When they did, they were the size of house bricks. There were only Four channels on TV, and no 24-hour TV on the BBC.
Even though it was probably acceptable to label the programme as "The Foolish Wise Ones" in February 1987, I still think they could have chosen a more appropriate title, such as "The Disabled Gifted" or "The Differently Abled" or something like that. They definitely wouldn't be able to get away with using a title such as that now.
Anthony Clare was the presenter of the documentary. I can't remember him at all. Twelve years later or so, I learned that he presented a show on Radio Four called "The Psychiatrists Chair" in which famous people would talk about themselves to him at great length. Clare himself died suddenly in Paris, of a heart attack, at the early age of 64, at the end of October 2007.
This is the programme on You Tube
Simultaneously, we go back to February 1987 and forward to July 2009. My memory was correct in that the first savant participant was a man named Noel. My memory failed in that I couldn't remember his full name. I learned that he was called Noel Patterson, and was a then 23-year-old black Autistic man. He was also had an IQ of 60, speech and communication defects, a mental age of 8, and was treated as such. Noel could hardly use a saw, but could play a Guitar and Piano with ease and with great proficiency. I don't remember the saw bit but I remember him playing the Piano. Noel learned music by ear and had instant recognition of note pitch and value.
His music was played to Antony Hopkins, the pianist and conductor, not the actor! Hopkins rated Noel's musical prowess at Grade 6 at least. Hopkins then composed a new piece of music. He and a female Bank Clerk, who also had attained Grade six in Piano, were asked to reproduce it. The Bank Clerk struggled, but Noel, on the third attempt, reproduced an almost carbon copy performance. According to Hopkins, Noel obtained a 78% accurate repetition of his music. Yet, according to Dr Neil O'Connor, Noel could hardly remember or complete a sentence in English, whilst possessing this incredible ability.
The bizarre irony is decades later, the actor Anthony Hopkins would be diagnosed as being on the Autistic Spectrum himself.
For my part, my memory of Noel Patterson was about 60% accurate from when I last saw the documentary in Feburary 1987!
The second person to be featured was a then 28-year-old calendar-calculating savant named David Kidd. Again, I got his first name correct but forgot his surname. He had an IQ of 68, and had very monotone and stilted speech. It was when David was speaking that I asked my mum about his "Funny" speech in February 1987. By that I didn't mean funny, in comical or which makes one laugh, but odd or unusual. I certainly didn't find his style of speech amusing in 1987, let alone now.
David lived in a residential unit for Autistic people. His carers asked David day of the week 16th March 1912 was. To that he correctly stated "Saturday". Following on from this, he was asked what day of the week the 30th March 1933 fell on. A correct answer of "Thursday" was given. Then he was asked what day of the week the 31st August 1985 was. It was a Saturday, and David confirmed it so.
He then gave the day of the week in the then future, for Sunday 29th March 1987 and Tuesday 1st March 2044, and then back to the past with Tuesday 17th December 1974 and Sunday 10th June 1917. Yet when asked how he could do this, David replied that he did not know.
David was introduced to Bernard Yallop, then a Mathematician at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. According to Yallop, David had two systems. I can't remember Yallop from the 1987 programme, or at least, his face or name didn't register with 22 and a half years later. Yallop stated that David could have cross-referenced the day, date and year or remembered different values. Both Yallop and David were asked what date the 3rd June 1989 will be. It was a Saturday, the day the Ayatollah Khomeini would die. Yallop was able to calculate the dates, but he had to use a pocket calculator, or a mathematical model. Both were asked what day of the week the 28th February, 1962 was. It was a Wednesday. By coincidence, the next time 28th February fell on a Wednesday, it was in 1990, the very day I watched the film "Rainman" for the first time, which of course, featured an Autistic Savant.
David was asked what day the 26th January 1928 fell on. He answered, in his stilted, monotone voice, "Thursday".
In marked contrast, when David was asked what the answer was to the sum seven plus eight, he said fourteen, which of course is wrong, as the answer is fifteen. David struggled to provide answers for arithmetic questions set for seven year olds.
As a coincidence, if you combine David's first name and Bernard's second, you get the name of an Author - David (Anthony) Yallop.
The third and final person, and the subject who went on to achieve fame, and whose talents have been discussed and recognised the most, was Stephen Wiltshire
I don't know his mental age now, but at the time, according to the documentary, he had a mental age of six as opposed to a Chronological age of nearly 13 then. He could recognise every London building and drew them by pencil sketch. Stephen was taken to a building he had never been to, or seen before, which was St Pancras Station, and hours later, reproduced an almost 100% accurate drawing of it.
Then he was introduced to Sir Hugh Casson, who lauded Stephen as a "Genius" and the "Best child artist" in Britain. After the programme was shown, though I didn't know this at the time, the BBC received several telephone calls from viewers wanting to buy Stephen's drawings.
In Stephen Wiltshire's case, this programme propelled him to fame. Four years later, on Wednesday, 13th February 1991, (I didn't see this and still haven't to this day), there was another QED programme which featured his amazing talent, called "The boy who draws buildings".
All the Psychologists at the time (February 1987) agreed that the savant skills shown, all occurred irrespective of, and independently to, the subjects intelligence levels.
Whilst Stephen Wiltshire's progress has been well documented, and his story well-known, it would be interesting to learn what became of David Kidd and Noel Patterson.
Whilst it must be stressed that everybody is good at something, it also must be emphasised though, if the episode or an updated version is shown, that savant abilities DON'T occur in everyone with Autism, just a few people. Whilst the "Foolish Wise Ones" and "Rainman" did raise awareness of Autism in the late 1980's, they have led to a stereotype forming in the minds of some people that everyone with Autism has savant skills.
