Born to Be Different

Born to Be Different is a British documentary series on Channel 4, which follows the lives of six disabled children who were born in the millennium. Series 10 began in the UK on 26 March 2020.^[1]

Children

• William Davis – lives with tuberous sclerosis, which causes him to have autism and epilepsy.^[1] He passed away in 2023. ^[2]
• Hamish McLean – has dwarfism^[1]
• Zoe Frew – has arthrogryposis^[3]
• Shelbie Williams – has trisomy 9, which has caused her to be severely disabled^[4] and who died in 2019 ^[5]
• Emily Speirs – has spina bifida^[6][7]
• Nathan Christie – has Down syndrome^[8][a]

Overview

Series		Episodes	Originally aired
	1	1	2003 (2003)
	2	1	2004 (2004)
	3	1	2005 (2005)
	4	3	2007 (2007)
	5	2	2009 (2009)
	6	2	2010 (2010)
	7	3	2011 (2011)
	8	2	2012 (2012)
	9	2	2016 (2016)

Series 1 (2003)

Series	Director	Original air date
Anna Stickland	2003 (2003)
The first episode looks at the first year of the children's lives.

Series 2 (2004)

Series	Director	Original air date
Anna Stickland	2004 (2004)
The second episode looks at the children's lives as they reach two years of age.

Series 3 (2005)

Series	Director	Original air date
Anna Stickland	2005 (2005)
The third series follows the children as they turn three.

Series 4 (2007)

Series	Director	Original air date
Anna Stickland	2007 (2007)
The fourth series looks at the children's lives between the ages of three and four.

Series 5 (2009)

Series	Director	Original air date
Anna Stickland	2009 (2009)
The fifth series focuses on the children at the ages of six and seven.

Series 6 (2010)

Series	Director	Original air date
Anna Stickland	2010 (2010)
The sixth series focuses on the children at the ages of eight and nine.

Series 7 (2011)

Series	Director	Original air date
Anna Stickland	2011 (2011)
The seventh series follows the lives of the children between the ages of nine and ten.

Series 8 (2012)

Series	Director	Original air date
Anna Stickland	2012 (2012)
This series follows the children as the turn eleven and start secondary school.

Series 9 (2016)

Series	Director	Original air date
Anna Stickland	2016 (2016)
The ninth series looks the lives of the children at the age of sixteen.

Critical reception

Reviewing the show, TimesOnline commented with irony that "by the end of [it], we had sobered up entirely. A queasy feeling followed, of being pulled morally up and down and in and out until you didn't know whom you pitied or why. The sign, in other words, of excellent television."^[9]

In its review, The London Paper expressed concerns about the voyeuristic approach of the show and asks: "what is to be gained from watching harried mothers breaking down, and children being constantly reminded of their problems by the camera crew? [...] Let’s just hope Channel 4's intentions were in the right place."^[10]

The music for the series was composed by Julian Stewart Lindsay.

See also

• Up Series
• Child of Our Time

Notes

1. Nathan dropped out of the series after series 8