Then Barbara Met Alan aired earlier this week and has been getting rave reviews, with RadioTimes.com calling it “vital”.
The one-off BBC drama tells the real life story of Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth, who became pivotal in the campaign for disability rights.
The drama’s writers Jack Thorne and Genevieve Barr have spoken exclusively to RadioTimes.com about what they would like to see happen as a result of the film’s powerful message around equal rights.
Barr said: “I hope the spirit of protest lives on. Barbara and Alan showed change happens when people act as a collective. We should be living in a country that is accessible by now. It’s not. People are still being treated badly and that’s down to ignorance and a lack of care.
“Wheelchair users are prevented from getting on buses because their spaces are filled with prams. And COVID? A disproportionate number of disabled people died during the pandemic, and their deaths were hidden under the separate arm ‘Underlying Health Conditions’. Those were disabled people and the government effectively said we did not count.
“25 years on, it would be nice to say that we are drastically better off. But the film hopefully goes some way to showing that more change needs to happen and that it starts with people’s hearts and minds. Television is a mirror, a provocateur. Sometimes it’s about prompting humility and humanity and disabled people need a lot more than they’re getting right now.”
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Asked what needs to happen to ensure more disabled talent is seen on-screen, Barr said: “While we were writing this, we also set up Underlying Health Condition – a pressure group to challenge the lack of disabled people in the television industry. There is a sea of good intentions but as the CDN’s (Creative Diversity Network) latest report shows, it’s not enough.”
The CDN report, released in June 2021, revealed that the TV industry could take seven more years to hit its off-screen disability targets.
Barr continued: “At our launch last year, we released a report that included a survey of accessibility in studios and facilities companies. The results were startling. Until we tackle the geography of where disabled people are supposed to work – production spaces – we can’t achieve representation. There’s a lack of toilets, ramps, funding for interpreters, etc.
“Two weeks ago we announced that Screenskills will be rolling out the first course for Accessibility Coordinators, and later this year the first cohort will be going into productions – as professionals – making sure locations are accessible, helping recruit and support disabled cast and crew, and starting to tackle change.
“It’s exciting. So much is being made in the UK at the moment, there’s a great opportunity to make the industry a better place to work in at the same time.”
Meanwhile, Thorne said: “The really shocking thing about the CDN figures was that the major decline was at executive level. There are less disabled execs and commissioners than there were, and when there were more the numbers were truly pitiful. That absence of people making choices is really telling.
“But, as Gen says, for the first time it feels like we have the ears of people at the upper levels and these notions of access are truly being discussed. It feels like a small revolution is happening at all levels, and the Accessibility Coordinators, which we are so excited about, are the start of profound change.”
Then Barbara Met Alan is available on demand on BBC iPlayer. Check out our Drama hub for more news, interviews and features or find something to watch with our TV Guide.
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