Dr Sue Fletcher-Watson (Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences), along with colleagues at the University of Oslo, has recently published an article in Psychiatry Research dissecting portrayals of autism on film and TV.
They found that representations of autism on screen align unrealistically-perfectly with the diagnostic criteria, making portrayals of autism archetypal, but not representative. This may be contributing to narrow stereotypes about autism, which in turn is expected to impact on the day to day experiences of people on the autism spectrum.
Further information can be found here.