Christine McGuinness knows she doesn’t think like most other people. During the new series of the BBC2 show Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales, we see this in action as the autism activist and former partner of the Top Gear host Paddy McGuinness encounters St Winefride’s Well, an ancient holy pool in Holywell that is considered the “Lourdes of Wales”. McGuinness stares, troubled, at the water, as one by one her six fellow participants immerse themselves in it. They figuratively wash away their sins to start the spiritual journey. She alone doesn’t go in.
“That water is now full of people’s sin,” McGuinness says to the camera.
It is easy to underestimate McGuinness, who left school at 14 after a brutal childhood, but she
