DAD matters

Joe Swash was 12 years old when his beloved dad, Ricky, passed away at the age of 39 from an undiagnosed heart condition. The presenter and former EastEnders actor vividly remembers the feelings of confusion and fear he felt growing up as a teenager without a male role model, and those emotions came flooding back in his mid-20s when he became a father himself, to son Harry, as he struggled with what it meant to be a parent.

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In new BBC3 documentary Joe Swash: Forgotten Young Dads, he examines if enough is being done to support young men navigating fatherhood and follow the stories of four people rewriting the script: Oran, 19, who has a two-year-old daughter, Wyatt, 18, who has a 21-month-old son, Albert, 22, who has an 11-month-old daughter, and Josh, a 21-year-old with two-year-old twins.

Here, Joe, 43, tells TV Times why he hopes the programme starts important conversations...

What inspired you to make this documentary now, Joe?

I've got six kids that I look after, so being a dad is a really big part of my life [as well as Harry, now 18, from a previous relationship, Joe also shares three children - son Rex, six, and daughters Rose, four, and Belle, two - with presenter wife Stacey Solomon and is stepfather to Stacey's sons Zachary, 17, and Leighton, 13, from previous relationships].