TV's drama bosses to put more disabled actors on screen

11th March 2009

British TV drama bosses from across the main channels are to take action to ensure that more disabled actors are cast in their programmes.

Some of the most senior representatives from drama departments at ITV. BBC, Channel 4, Sky, Five, Welsh channel S4C, and a number of independent production companies came together with disabled actors for a workshop hosted by ITV and the BCIDN.

Producers and commissioners discussed some of the difficulties they had encountered in finding disabled actors suitable for scripts, and offered a number of suggestions for how they could ensure more disabled talent makes it through to the screen.

ITV's Controller of Drama Kieran Roberts shared the Channel’s positive experiences of casting an actor with learning difficulties in Cold Blood, and both a hearing impaired actress, Ali Briggs, who played Emily Bishop's niece Freda, and a young wheelchair user in Coronation Street.

Roanna Benn, producer of Coming Down the Mountain (BBC/Tiger Aspect), talked about the difficulties of finding the right actor with Down’s Syndrome to play one of the two key roles in the programme, and how successful the casting of Tommy Jessop had finally been. She also discussed the introduction of a storyline about a disabled client visiting a prostitute for sex in Secret Diary of a Call Girl (ITV).

Lime Pictures producer Bryan Kirkwood unveiled Hollyoaks new character, Zak’s sister Hayley, who, like her Kelly-Marie Stewart, the actress who plays her, became a wheelchair user following an illness. He shared clips showing how the storyline had been developed through workshops with the actors involved, and encouraged other producers to find good disabled actors and then develop storylines with them, rather than write the storylines and then hope they could find the right disabled actor to play the part.

Those attending the workshop included, Hilary Salmon, BBC Executive Producer, Kate Rowlands, BBC Creative Director, New Writing, Victoria Fea, ITV Commissioning Executive, Keith Richardson Controller of Drama, ITV Yorkshire, Elaine Pyke, Sarah Conroy and Huw Kennail-Jones, Commissioning Editors for Sky, Robert Wulff-Cochrane, Senior Development Editor, Channel 4, and actors Mat Fraser and Julie Fernandez (The Office).

There was consensus that much more effort should be made to include disabled actors in parts not originally written as disabled characters, and that there was a need for more inclusion of disabled people as background characters as a matter of course. Among the commitments made were for disability casting to become an integral part of pre commissioning discussions, and for the development of disabled characters as permanent members of soap casts.

The workshop was the first of a series being run by the BCIDN with the broadcasters. The next event will cover sport and is being hosted by Sky Sports.