Can't Read Can't Write

In this first episode, award-winning teacher Phil Beadle (The Unteachables) takes on the task of teaching nine adults how to read and write. Each one of them spent over 10 years in the school system – and yet they failed to learn the most basic skills. The class includes a whole range of people who left school unable to read: a businessman, a plumber, a single mum and an unemployed 21-year-old.

In the second programme of the 3-part series about adult literacy, award-winning teacher Phil Beadle is tackling another huge obstacle which has dogged the lives of the adults he's teaching. Phil turns his attention to teaching his class how to write – and the problems and emotional barriers he encountered in teaching them to read start to present themselves immediately.

In the final programme, Phil enters his class for government-approved adult literacy tests. He wants to prove both to himself and to the nine people on his course that they can reverse a lifetime of failure and pass an exam.