ANXIETY has been running high this week. Not, I hasten to add, because someone very kindly left Roger Whittaker's new album on my desk for review - presumably under the impression that I'm the only one old enough to remember him.

What has been occupying my wife and I is managing a two-day trip to London for our wheelchair-using son Luke, who is one of 25 aspiring actors chosen from the whole of the UK in the latest BBC talent hunt. Supported by C4 and the Actors Centres, the scheme offers the chance of more disabled actors appearing on TV like Paul Henshall, who joined Holby City (BBC1, Tuesday) as student doctor Dean West this week. Paul is that rare sight on TV of a person playing someone with cerebral palsy who actually has cerebral palsy.

My own TV watching has gone out the window as I've wrestled with Luke's medical needs in bags, trains (GNER take a bow), taxis (superbly disabled friendly) and hotels in order to reach a BBC introduction day in central London. Here we met up with Alexandra White, who has Down's Syndrome, another lucky enough to be chosen from the BBC auditions in Newcastle, as 12 of the 25 Talent Fund choices tackled their first workshop.

Without a shred of professional credibility, the role of caring parent is indeed difficult. The task of trying to melt into the background proved almost impossible as a six-strong group containing three wheelchair using young people took to the busy streets of the capital armed with a TV camera. But even a humble wheelchair-pusher, who smiled inanely at interested passers by and intrigued shopowners as he hid in doorways (hopefully) out of camera-shot, was politely banned from the indoor afternoon session.

Running reports by mobile phone to my wife included the shock news that the Hilton Hotel in Kensington charges £20 a head for breakfast. More hot news for her came from two carers who did sneak inside and spotted our son busy directing a drama scene where a family of six made the mistake of sleeping in a people carrier outside a Spanish letting agency until it opened. Just before dawn, they were confronted by a gang of young men.

"That happened on our holiday last year. We are that story," said my wife, who now finds our high-speed escape quite amusing.

The whole exercise, in London not Spain, is being repeated in June and September when the 25 will be attending week-long masterclasses at London's Actors Centre.

Let's be honest, every parent and carer I met is delighted for their charges "just to have got this far" but, secretly, you know the odds are now 25-1 or even shorter. Hopefully, there are no shades of The Apprentice: the Final (BBC2, Wednesday) with just one job offer - although I applaud the choice of Tim Campbell over the truly irritating Saira Khan.

All I can tell you for definite, at the moment, is that Roger Whittaker's album Moments In My Life is released on May 23 and he isn't touring to "Old Durham Town" this time but York's Grand Opera House on June 3 and Newcastle City Hall on June 5.

Published: 07/05/2005