Jamie's Dyslexia Revolution, review: Oliver takes no waffle from politicians in new campaign
'Secretary of State, I've got Jamie Oliver on line one,' must be a sentence that strikes fear into the heart of our leaders. It means Oliver is doing one of his campaigns again. This time he's calling for an overhaul of teaching in schools, arguing – convincingly – that the current system does not meet the needs of dyslexic children. That means Bridget Phillipson is the hapless politician in his sights. In Jamie's Dyslexia Revolution (Channel 4), we watched as Oliver demanded action, and Phillipson came out with some waffle.
The thing is, Oliver is really good at this. He goes into meetings armed with information and personal testimonies, determined to ask direct questions, and unwilling to let people off the hook. Dyslexic himself, he is as passionate about this subject as he was about improving school dinners 20 years ago. After greeting him with a nervous expression, which showed that she would rather be anywhere else, Phillipson said some stuff about this issue being very important.
Oliver waited politely for her to finish, then cut to the chase. 'Will we be seeing some radical, strategic restructuring of teacher training?' 'There's a lot we can do,' Phillipson non-answered. Oliver pressed on. 'Do you think that you might be able to have uncomfortable conversations with the Treasury?' Phillipson waffled some more. Oliver gave it short shrift. 'The public has got slightly disillusioned with nothing happening. Do you feel that pressure?' he asked. Ouch. 'We've got the space to do it, we've got to get on and make it happen,' said Phillipson, helplessly. You will notice that this is not a promise to do anything.
Oliver makes sure that his programmes are as easy to follow as his recipes. If you have no personal experience of dyslexia, the issue may never have crossed your mind but, according to the statistics here, 10-15 per cent of every primary school class is dyslexic (Dyslexia UK says 10 per cent of the population is affected).
To explain it, text on the screen spelled out how some dyslexics see words: 'Dyslexia is a learning difference that affects the adility to reab, swell, write, grocess and remember information.' Oliver spoke candidly about his own experiences of feeling worthless at school, and the fact he didn't read a book until his 30s, despite being the second-biggest-selling author in the UK. 'I knew things were bad when my own six- and seven-year-olds were reading better than me,' he said.
Throughout the programme we also heard from others with dyslexia, including the well-known – Holly Willoughby and Made In Chelsea's Jamie Laing – to members of the public who got in touch after Oliver put out a call for stories. A middle-aged woman said she could still feel in the pit of her stomach how scared she was when told to read out loud in class.
At a House of Commons reception, Adam Dance, the Lib Dem MP for Yeovil, spoke of being bullied as a child and trying to take his own life. Oliver met children now who said they saw no future for themselves, and he drew a link between dyslexia and crime: according to this programme, 50 per cent of prison inmates are dyslexic. It's not hard to see how being written off at school, failing exams or being expelled, can lead someone down the wrong path.
In the world of neat, hour-long TV programmes, this is all very simple. Improve the teaching of dyslexic children and you'll get a happier society with fewer criminals. But of course it's far more difficult than that. There were few details about what this inclusive teaching would look like, what the outcomes would be, or where the funds would come from. Unfortunately, you can't just do a Jamie Oliver bish, bash, bosh job on a subject like this.
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