The real rain man.

This programme is about Kim Peek, the most famous autistic savant upon whom the film Rain Man was based. When he was born in 1951, Kim's parents were told he was so severely mentally retarded that he should be institutionalised. But his parents refused to allow this and since the death of Kim's mother he has been more or less sorely cared for by his father Fran. We hear from Barry Morrow, creator of Rain Man, and about how the film entirely changed Kim's life, turning him from an introverted man into an increasingly well-known public figure. Fran is nearing his 80th birthday so he and Kim journey to meet some of the most emminent neurologists in a bid to finally work out what's happening in Kim's brain. Detailed brain scans show that Kim has no corpus callosum, meaning he cannot conceptualise and doesn't understand things like metaphor, so that while his memory and ability to retain factual information is brilliant, his social skills are learned by rote rather than felt and understood by him.