PADDY McGuinness is one of those people who seems to pop up every time you switch on the television. From Top Gear to Question of Sport via the dating show Take Me Out, one half expects to find him reading the 10 O’Clock News one day.

Affable, funny, makes people feel at ease, he is a television natural, a big daft lad who keeps the light in light entertainment. In interviews, however, he has mentioned that his three children with wife Christine, 8-year-old twins, Leo and Penelope, and 5-year-old Felicity, have autism.

There was clearly a story there to tell, one of particular interest to parents in a similar position, and so the plan for a documentary, Paddy and Christine McGuinness: Our Family and Autism (BBC1, Wednesday, 9pm), came together.

As the film points out, the number of children being diagnosed with autism is increasing. One of the main messages the McGuinnesses want to get across is that every child, every family, is different. Even so, you can imagine others nodding away in recognition as certain experiences are recounted.

McGuinness acknowledges that for a long time he buried himself in work, thinking the best way to help was to keep earning. Part of the film is about him facing up to reality of the situation and thinking about the future, as when he and Christine visit a centre where young adults can have their first experience of living alone.

McGuinness turns out to be much as you would expect him, that lack of starriness serving him well again, while Christine, like her husband, is a natural on screen.

It took a certain courage to make this film. Usually, the last thing any disabled person or their family members want to hear is that they are “brave”.

Even so it is a big step to be so open about your family life. McGuinness has said the motivation in his case was lockdown. Seeing the tough time his family had, with routines disrupted and support put on pause, he hopes this film can help others.

Is it beginning to feel a bit like Christmas where you are? No, me neither. We need a rallying cry, a call to festive arms, something that will silence your inner Grinch and have you rooting around in the attic for the Christmas tree in no time. Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas (Channel 4, Friday, 8pm) usually does the trick.

Even if you would rather hike barefoot along the West Highland Way in January than make your own baubles, watching Kirstie go through the motions with glitter and paste affords some comfort and joy to the lazy among us.

There are suggestions for food and drink too, including a Hogmanay cocktail (seems like sacrilege, but hey, it’s Christmas), and Phil Spencer, Kirstie’s mucker from Location, Location, Location, shows up to demonstrate the art of wrapping, which turns out to involve a bit more than shoving the pressie in a gift bag. Who knew? Kirstie of course.

One of the few upsides of the pandemic is that it has led people to rediscover the simple joys of walking. As a guide to life in general there is a lot to be said for putting one foot in front of the other.

Listeners to Clare Balding’s Ramblings on Radio 4 will know, too, that a walk can be a great place for an interview. Rather like chatting in a car, not making eye contact encourages the sharing of confidences.

Winter Walks (BBC4, Monday to Thursday, 7.30pm) goes one better than Ramblings in having its subjects go solo, their only “friend” a camera on a stick that shoots them while they walk and talk.

The first series was a deserved hit, and now the programme makers are back with more.

The new run begins with Amanda Owen, best known as the shepherd, hill farmer, and mother of nine in Our Yorkshire Farm.

As Owen says, it’s a rare occasion when she can go anywhere without a child or several in tow, and like many farmers, the idea of going for a walk for no obvious reason would never occur to her.

Owen likens herself to her dogs, mind always buzzing, keen to stay busy, but she gives in to the rhythm of the walk and finds herself thoroughly enjoying having “a bit of headspace”. Finally she has time to stop and stare at whatever takes her fancy (in her case the beauty of a dry stone wall).

She relishes the experience so much she resolves to encourage the children to take to the hills for their own adventures.

Other walkers in this series are broadcaster and author Alastair Campbell, the Reverend Kate “ex-Gogglebox” Bottley, and presenter Nihal Arthanayake – all of them taking in the majesty of the Yorkshire Dales.