Yes, the BBC Two film Then Barbara Met Alan charts the true story of Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth, the former couple who founded DAN, the Disabled Peoples Direct Action Network.

The real-life group organised non-violent civil disobedience throughout the ’90s and helped to bring about the Disability Discrimination Act, a groundbreaking piece of legislation.

Comedian Barbara Lisicki and singer-songwriter Alan Holdsworth met in the early ’90s, and teamed up to confront television events that they believed showed disabled people in a negative light, like Children In Need or ITV’s Telethon;  for the latter they used the slogan ‘Piss On Pity’ for the famous “Block Telethon” protests.

The couple also picketed inaccessible venues like cinemas that didn’t have wheelchair access, using non-violent civil disobedience like handcuffing themselves to public transport.

Ruth Madeley, who plays Barbara in the series, appeared at a recent press event attended by RadioTimes.com and spoke about her nerves ahead of meeting the real Barbara.

“[It was] terrifying. I was so frightened, because I’d come on board this really early and then I thought, ‘What if she hates me?’. What if she thinks, ‘Why did you hire her, of all people?’ – so I was just really desperate to do Barbara justice and also the story of DAN and what was achieved,” she said.

“I’m not a London girl and the first thing she said to me was, ‘You’re not using that accent, are you?’ – I was like, ‘No! I’ll get a dialect coach, it’s fine!’ – from an acting perspective, it was such a welcome challenge,” she added.

Arthur Hughes (who plays Alan) added: “Alan lives in the States, so we’d spoken on Zoom. I was terrified – I wanted to do it justice, because it’s a huge responsibility to tell not only the story of DAN but the story of Barbara and Alan’s life. I think I’ve got the blessing, from what he said. But it was a real privilege to get to know him. I hope I’ve done it justice. I feel very proud of the film and I hope Alan is too.”

Speaking at the same press event, director Bruce Goodison explained: “There’s always a huge weight of responsibility with making any fact-based drama but [especially] when it is such an important story which changed history, with some incredible characters,” adding: “When I was invited onto this, I was immediately scared.”

Co-writer Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials) concluded: “I’m really proud of the work we did on it and I’m really proud that we got the opportunity to represent a bit of history which isn’t much talked about, because disabled history has been relegated out of the history books and it’s about time that changes.”

Read more:

• Ruth Madeley says Then Barbara Met Alan is ‘highlight of her career’

Then Barbara Met Alan airs on BBC Two on Monday 21st March at 9pm. Find something else to watch with our TV Guide. Visit our Drama hub for more news, interviews and features.