The star of Channel 4 hit Educating Yorkshire finds his voice at Stammer School
Musharaf Asghar, star of Channel 4 hit ‘Educating Yorkshire’, will return to our screens this week in a brand new show focalised on the issue which won viewers’ hearts last year – overcoming his stammer.
The 17-year-old “Mushy” Musharaf Asghar from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, has suffered from a chronic stammer since childhood and viewers saw him struggle significantly with the oral assessment in his English GCSE.
His despairing teacher, Mr Burton, took inspiration from the film ‘The King’s Speech’ which he had watched by chance. The film centres on George VI, who overcame his stammer when addressing the nation by listening to music through headphones thus distracting him when reading out loud.
The same technique was used by Mushy to secure his grade C in the subject, which was vital in enabling the stammer-sufferer to attend college.
Though the poignant moment when the student delivered a thank you speech to the school for all their efforts caused teachers, fellow pupils and viewers alike to weep, many others were left outraged.
Rich Whincup was one such person. A staff trainer on the McGuire Programme, a course taught by recovering stammerers for stammer-sufferers, he said: “I was yelling at the television, and social media was buzzing with stammerers saying: ‘You’ve got it all wrong’”.
The distraction through headphones, it emerged, is only a temporary solution with short-lived success.
“It only works for a very limited amount of time,” the trainer explained. “The first time you hit a major block, you realise you’re still stammering just wearing headphones. The psychological benefits disappear and the stammer returns.”
The Programme, which has seen much success and has thousands of “graduates” world-wide, contacted Mushy via Channel 4 in a bid to provide a more long-lasting solution to the teenager’s speech impediment.
Through this conversation, Stammer School: Musharaf Finds His Voice, was created. The show will follow Mushy and four other young stammerers as they attend one of the Programme’s four-day residential courses.
Stammer School begins on Channel 4 at 9pm on Thursday August 28.
