0:00:05 > 0:00:09Back in the Dark Ages, disabled people were marginalised, patronised
0:00:09 > 0:00:12and told to put a brave face on it.
0:00:12 > 0:00:17'Charlie Coffey has been on his back for 58 years but he can still laugh.'
0:00:18 > 0:00:22But in today's politically correct, playfully ironic world,
0:00:22 > 0:00:26attitudes towards disability are very different.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28How did you get up there?
0:00:28 > 0:00:29I fell.
0:00:29 > 0:00:3450 years ago, people with disabilities lived in a parallel universe of invalid carriages,
0:00:34 > 0:00:38callipers and charity.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42We weren't throwing stones at people in wheelchairs, but that sense of,
0:00:42 > 0:00:43"He's not like me, we must give money."
0:00:43 > 0:00:46You can't do that because you're in a wheelchair.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49Since then, language has changed.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53I started out as just plain blind. I became visually handicapped
0:00:53 > 0:00:56and visually impaired, someone with a sight problem.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Humour has changed.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02'It's the start of the 1500 metres for the deaf.'
0:01:02 > 0:01:04STARTER PISTOL IS FIRED
0:01:04 > 0:01:07Images of disability on TV have gone from this...
0:01:07 > 0:01:10I want to be a baddie and point with my evil finger.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14- ..to this...- It must be lovely to see her laughing.
0:01:14 > 0:01:20- ..via this.- If you've never seen a severely handicapped person trying to speak, it can be a bit alarming.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Oh, over here! Over here, puppy! Oh!
0:01:22 > 0:01:25"Get her off! She's frightening our children!"
0:01:25 > 0:01:27But how did these changes happen?
0:01:27 > 0:01:33It was nice to get the Sports Personality Award. It would've been nicer if I could have got on stage!
0:01:33 > 0:01:37We've had box-ticking, positive discrimination and - the token wheelchair.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45'For many disabled people, stairs present a painful ordeal,
0:01:45 > 0:01:47'so the Central Council For The Care Of Cripples,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50'who are pioneers in the use of equipment for the handicapped,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54'have imported from Denmark a wheelchair that acts as an escalator.'
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Society's attitude towards disability has changed, thankfully,
0:01:59 > 0:02:02and not least on our TV screens.
0:02:02 > 0:02:08There's been a revolution and perhaps the biggest change has been how we talk about the handicapped.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10No, the differently abled.
0:02:10 > 0:02:15You know, those with special needs. You know what I'm talking about!
0:02:15 > 0:02:19- Why, what are you? A spazzy?- No...
0:02:19 > 0:02:22"Spaz", "spastic" we used to use all the time.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26"Crip", "raspberry ripple", "spaz", "mong".
0:02:26 > 0:02:31"Flid", "spastic", "mong", "spacker", "spaz", "spasmo".
0:02:31 > 0:02:34It's all about the intention and the context.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38For me, kind of "mong" is pretty nasty.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41People who had Down's syndrome were referred to as "mongols".
0:02:41 > 0:02:45Nobody was embarrassed by it because that was the word.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49But now... God, it almost stuck in my throat to say it!
0:02:49 > 0:02:54Girls at my school used to run up to me and go, "You're a spastic!"
0:02:54 > 0:03:00And I doubt I would have felt much better, had they gone, "You're differently abled!"
0:03:00 > 0:03:03I was the school flid, obviously.
0:03:03 > 0:03:09Quite a luxury. There was only 400 of us. I guess my classmates were pleased they got a proper flid.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13People would say to me, "So what's it like then?
0:03:13 > 0:03:16"How do you manage being unsighted?"
0:03:16 > 0:03:20And I'd go, "Unsighted? That makes me sound like a football referee!"
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Will you... Yes, you...
0:03:23 > 0:03:26..please help spastics?
0:03:26 > 0:03:30If language has become more inclusive, so has society.
0:03:30 > 0:03:37In the past, disabled people weren't integrated. They were different, other, out of sight, out of mind.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41'Yes, please help spastics.'
0:03:41 > 0:03:45Growing up in the '70s and early '80s, there was that feeling,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48the little boy stood outside newsagent's,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51the little sort of thing you could donate money to.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56That was a big icon of the age. There was a sense of otherness, "That boy's not like me."
0:03:56 > 0:04:02And often, it was a dreadful thing, people had shoved chips into the slot where the money should be
0:04:02 > 0:04:06because that passed for recreation back in the '70s.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11Disabilities of all sorts were other and somewhere else
0:04:11 > 0:04:13and not quite of this world.
0:04:13 > 0:04:19Disabled people were certainly a lot less visible then because of the way in which we were educated,
0:04:19 > 0:04:24because you were much more likely to be institutionalised
0:04:24 > 0:04:27as a disabled person in those days.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33TV reflects society. Go back 40 years and one of the only representations
0:04:33 > 0:04:37of disability on the small screen was set in a manky Midlands motel.
0:04:39 > 0:04:45Crossroads character Sandy Richardson was Britain's most famous fictional wheelchair user.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Is it really as dire as it sounds?
0:04:48 > 0:04:50Sandy, with the croaky voice,
0:04:50 > 0:04:57was a bloke in a wheelchair who went from reception to the bar and back again. I watched it with my granny.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Crossroads Motel, can I help you?
0:05:00 > 0:05:03My first memory, as I became a wheelchair user,
0:05:03 > 0:05:08was watching Crossroads which was compulsory viewing in our house every teatime
0:05:08 > 0:05:14and Sandy Richardson being the token wheelchair user, but it was all very patronising.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17It felt tokenistic and it looked tokenistic
0:05:17 > 0:05:21and it didn't bear any resemblance to my life and how I was treated.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23Oh! Oh...
0:05:23 > 0:05:29Tokenism - definitely something to be avoided then. Well, if I knew what it was.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33If you parachute a disabled performer, character into a show
0:05:33 > 0:05:36and all they get to talk about is their disability,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39then that's tokenism, I think.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43And that smacks of not necessarily being progress.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48There was one super-cool wheelchair user out there in the '60s and '70s,
0:05:48 > 0:05:53policing the strangely accessible streets of San Francisco -
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Robert T Ironside.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02Ironside, I remember, was very ahead of its time, actually -
0:06:02 > 0:06:06somebody who wasn't a baddie, was in a wheelchair,
0:06:06 > 0:06:11was very smart and was a detective, so it actually broke lots of moulds.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15He never, ever lost a case, Ironside,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19so, you know, book your lawyer in a wheelchair. That's what I'd do.
0:06:19 > 0:06:24He was an action hero to me as a kid. Anything on the telly was exciting.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29He couldn't do the high kicks like Emma Peel in The Avengers, but you'd still cheer for him.
0:06:29 > 0:06:35I remember watching Ironside and being quite young, thinking that is absolute nonsense.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38It was quite cool cos he had an accessible van.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44Oh, van envy? It's not big and it's not clever!
0:06:44 > 0:06:48I don't know what people in '70s Britain were complaining about(!)
0:06:48 > 0:06:52Ironside may have had his wheels, but they had these!
0:06:52 > 0:06:55- # Make way for Noddy - Noddy!
0:06:55 > 0:06:58# He toots his horn to say... #
0:06:58 > 0:07:02They weren't quite cars. They were sort of bubble car type things.
0:07:02 > 0:07:08Unfortunately, we called them "spaz chariots", which is awful, but I'm just being honest.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13They were fibreglass. You could tip them over quite easily. They were meant for one person.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18You wouldn't want to take any friends anywhere cos disabled people don't have them(!)
0:07:18 > 0:07:22I remember talking to a couple once. Both were in chairs.
0:07:22 > 0:07:28They had to drive places separately as you couldn't get two wheelchairs, two people in one of these things.
0:07:28 > 0:07:34It's like walking round with two big arrows pointing at you, going, "Disabled, disabled!"
0:07:35 > 0:07:38Those little blue cars were funny.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Whoa! Oh, shit...
0:07:41 > 0:07:47But ouch! Is that a twinge of guilt? Does laughing at disability make us bad people?
0:07:47 > 0:07:49What would Thora Hird do?
0:07:49 > 0:07:53Being able to laugh at disability is OK in every circumstance
0:07:53 > 0:07:56that it's about social attitudes to disability.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59Are you laughing at the situation or the context,
0:07:59 > 0:08:03or because you can't identify with somebody you think is a freak?
0:08:03 > 0:08:08- You know my legs?- Hmm.- Do you know how many I've always had an' that?
0:08:08 > 0:08:11Like two legs or some shit like that?
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Well, I've only got one leg now.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Random. LAUGHTER
0:08:17 > 0:08:21In my view, all comedians deal with disability
0:08:21 > 0:08:25because I think doing comedy itself is a disability.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29I mean, it's basically borderline Asperger's, comedy,
0:08:29 > 0:08:35because you're looking at the world and not connecting with it emotionally, basically.
0:08:35 > 0:08:42Thinking that you can't make comedy out of disability, to me, is like the ultimate discrimination.
0:08:42 > 0:08:48It's like, "What, we're all so delicate, we're going to collapse in a heap and cry?"
0:08:48 > 0:08:50As a disabled person,
0:08:50 > 0:08:54loads of bizarre stuff happens to you.
0:08:54 > 0:08:59And if you didn't take the piss out of it,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01you'd go mad.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05Anything goes now. You don't care where people are from,
0:09:05 > 0:09:09if they have disabilities. Doesn't matter in comedy. Are they funny?
0:09:09 > 0:09:11A lot of comedy has a victim
0:09:11 > 0:09:16and often the victim is someone who's different.
0:09:16 > 0:09:22Here's a joke. A man goes to the doctor. He says, "I can't say my TH's or F's."
0:09:22 > 0:09:26The doctor says, "Well, you can't say fairer than that then."
0:09:26 > 0:09:31And that's a joke, in a sense, about someone with a lisp, I suppose.
0:09:31 > 0:09:37'And here we are at the 3,000-metre steeplechase for people who think they're chickens.'
0:09:37 > 0:09:42Tastes do change, though. 40 years ago, the Pythons were the hippest act on television.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46But would this sketch get through television's PC radar today?
0:09:46 > 0:09:50'They've settled down. They're on the water jump...'
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Monty Python is my favourite comedy series ever.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57'And here is the start of the first event of the afternoon -
0:09:57 > 0:10:02'the second semi-final of the 100 yards for people with no sense of direction.'
0:10:02 > 0:10:07You arguably see the changing attitude to disability
0:10:07 > 0:10:11when you look at some of those original sketches.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14It's on slightly soggy soil.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19Today, we're much more up front, or is it knowingly ironic,
0:10:19 > 0:10:24about how we laugh at, or is it with, the differences of disability.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29- Hi. Nice to meet you.- Good to meet you. This is my fiancee Claire.- Hi.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31Hi.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37Extras and The Office are not documentaries, even if The Office may look like one.
0:10:37 > 0:10:43They are fictions we have created. We have sent those scripts to actors who have agreed to be in them.
0:10:43 > 0:10:49They never turn up and we spring it on them that we'll make a joke about their height or disability,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52so they're comfortable when they arrive to do it.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55- Are you sure this food is free?- Yes.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59- This is my agent.- Darren Lamb, nice to meet you.- This is Warwick.- Where?
0:10:59 > 0:11:02- There.- Oh, midget. Hello.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06When I walk on as a character, part of the humour is I'm an idiot.
0:11:06 > 0:11:12I'm talking rubbish, but there's a visual element to it because I'm much, much taller than Warwick.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Could I fit in your house? How would it work?
0:11:16 > 0:11:20Am I exploiting Warwick? Do I think he's being ridiculed in it? No.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25Perhaps some people do. I don't think he does, but there we are.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30- This'll make you laugh. - What?- Jesus, look! Pissed over there. She's had a few.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Actually, is she pissed or mental?
0:11:34 > 0:11:37- Here she comes.- That's my sister.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39- Huh?- She's got cerebral palsy.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42No...
0:11:42 > 0:11:45All my life I'd had a real worry
0:11:45 > 0:11:48about people laughing at my walk.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52And it was kind of like the ultimate liberation
0:11:52 > 0:11:54to go on national TV
0:11:54 > 0:11:59and kind of go, "OK, my walk IS funny - let's all laugh!"
0:11:59 > 0:12:05And when I saw it, I thought, "My walk is funny. I might as well get paid for it."
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Oh, God! What have you done?
0:12:08 > 0:12:12- What?- What's happened? Are you all right?
0:12:12 > 0:12:15No, no. No, I've got cerebral palsy.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18- Don't worry.- Oh, good!
0:12:19 > 0:12:25I was asked a lot whether it was right or PC or naughty of them
0:12:25 > 0:12:29to make comedy out of my character,
0:12:29 > 0:12:35but I said, "To me, I think that's the ultimate equality."
0:12:35 > 0:12:37CHEERING
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Francesca Martinez is an actor and a stand-up comedian,
0:12:41 > 0:12:45so does having cerebral palsy mean she can make jokes
0:12:45 > 0:12:49that a non-disabled comedian couldn't get away with?
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Before I start, I should say that, in case you're wondering,
0:12:53 > 0:12:58the correct word for my condition is, um...
0:12:58 > 0:13:01sober.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05I've found that stand-up comedy is such a good way
0:13:05 > 0:13:08to address something like disability,
0:13:08 > 0:13:12which still makes people very nervous.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16- I can't play golf.- You can't play golf?- No, I'm hopeless.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19Shit!
0:13:19 > 0:13:22LAUGHTER
0:13:22 > 0:13:25I'm sorry.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Were you born like that?
0:13:28 > 0:13:30LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:13:30 > 0:13:36I definitely think only disabled people should be allowed to make jokes about disability.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40In the same sense, I think disabled people should not be allowed
0:13:40 > 0:13:44to make any jokes about us normals as they don't know anything about it!
0:13:44 > 0:13:50'In a large factory making water heaters, Nicholas takes his place beside a normal factory worker.'
0:13:50 > 0:13:57In the past, having a disability certainly meant your life was very different from "the normals".
0:13:57 > 0:14:03'Peter, who but two years previously was a helpless cripple, discarded his cage for crutches.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06'Another step towards normality.'
0:14:06 > 0:14:12Kids with disability went to special schools, even if they were hundreds of miles from home.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16That was natural - keep the happy disabled kids all together!
0:14:16 > 0:14:19'School starts with morning bell...'
0:14:19 > 0:14:22We were often regarded as deeply freakish.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26We were regarded as the kids from the blind school.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29We were regarded as separate from the rest of society.
0:14:29 > 0:14:36People would ask us bizarre questions like whether they gave us soup for breakfast, stuff like that.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39And it was just an astonishing life to live, really.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43'Before coming to Coombe Farm, this girl might never have known the joy
0:14:43 > 0:14:47'of walking without aid into the arms of her happy parents.'
0:14:47 > 0:14:51I wish I'd gone to a mainstream school right from the start.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55I mean, I think as I got into my early teens,
0:14:55 > 0:15:00you know, I remember thinking... "Do all my girlfriends have to be in a wheelchair?
0:15:00 > 0:15:02"Am I only going to meet...
0:15:02 > 0:15:08"Are these the confines that I am putting around myself? Is this going to be my normality?"
0:15:08 > 0:15:12My parents got hold of the 1981 White Paper on Education, read it,
0:15:12 > 0:15:17found the line that said I had a right to be educated in a mainstream environment
0:15:17 > 0:15:21and threatened to sue the Secretary of State for Wales over that right,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25so I grew up in this atmosphere where it was... "So what?"
0:15:25 > 0:15:30That gave me a lot of confidence as a young person to do the things that I wanted.
0:15:30 > 0:15:36People have assumed that wheels mean nothing up here in the brain, you know?
0:15:36 > 0:15:41It wasn't really until the 1980s, following developments in the States,
0:15:41 > 0:15:48that a kind of consciousness began to emerge among disabled people in Britain as well and moves...
0:15:48 > 0:15:54People with what would be regarded as very high impairment levels suddenly started to think,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58"Hang on, we should be allowed to live as members of this society."
0:15:58 > 0:16:03Virtually nothing is unachievable with the right access and equipment.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05You can do anything.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11One thing that surprises me is you still come up to a new building and there'll just be a flight of steps
0:16:11 > 0:16:15and you go, "That's really annoying. You've just built that."
0:16:15 > 0:16:21The old building, I understand, the new building, I'm furious. You're lucky I'm too busy to write letters!
0:16:21 > 0:16:23So you want access, do you?
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Well, yes, when you're about to go live on television!
0:16:27 > 0:16:32In 2000, we celebrated our great Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson
0:16:32 > 0:16:36and forgot to put up the ramp. Oh!
0:16:36 > 0:16:42Alan Shearer was presenting. "And in third place is Britain's best-known Paralympian, Tanni Grey-Thompson."
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Tanni Grey-Thompson.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46APPLAUSE
0:16:46 > 0:16:51She couldn't get up on to the ruddy stage as there was no access for her wheelchair.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54You just think, "You could not make this up!"
0:16:54 > 0:16:59I could see there was no ramp, so I thought, "I'll just sit here."
0:16:59 > 0:17:04So the award was eventually brought down and it was like, "Thank you very much."
0:17:04 > 0:17:12Just an excruciating bit of television. Heads must have rolled all over at the BBC for that one.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17Lots of people wanted me to be angry and lash out and criticise. That's not me as an individual.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21It's more important to change things so it never happens again.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26'A fly-on-the-wall comedy about the trials of work...'
0:17:26 > 0:17:31From then on, organisers of glitzy awards ceremonies were thrown into a panic
0:17:31 > 0:17:35if there was the merest suggestion of a winning wheelchair approaching the stage.
0:17:35 > 0:17:41Thank you to Ash Atalla, our producer. Thanks to Anil Gupta...
0:17:41 > 0:17:47I think I was the first person in a wheelchair that would be regularly nominated for awards,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50so at the beginning, it was definitely an issue.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Awards organisers would phone me up in a real panic
0:17:54 > 0:17:59and it became this thing where we would get a sense if we had won,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03depending on how much contact the organisers had had with me.
0:18:03 > 0:18:08I'd tell Ricky, "It's in the bag. They phoned to get the measurements of my chair."
0:18:08 > 0:18:12You've done a wonderful thing, not for me, but look at his little face!
0:18:12 > 0:18:15LAUGHTER
0:18:15 > 0:18:16Yeah?
0:18:22 > 0:18:25It's not just award-winners who have access problems.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29Simply getting a casting call can be an issue for many disabled actors.
0:18:29 > 0:18:36Old Ironside and Sandy from Crossroads didn't need their wheelchairs. They were just props.
0:18:36 > 0:18:42So which was the first mainstream TV drama series to employ a disabled actor,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44playing a disabled role?
0:18:44 > 0:18:50- Was it EastEnders?- No.- Coronation Street?- No.- Brookside?- No.- I would've thought it would've been Brookside.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52- Um...- Come on.- Um...
0:18:52 > 0:18:56Come on... Do you need a clue?
0:18:57 > 0:19:00- Emmerdale?- Try again.- Um...
0:19:00 > 0:19:05Oh, for goodness sake, it was Eldorado in 1992!
0:19:05 > 0:19:10- Yeah, this is all a wind-up, right? - No, Nessa, I think he's really serious.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14It was way ahead of its time because it was the first time
0:19:14 > 0:19:18a disabled person ever played a disabled character,
0:19:18 > 0:19:24and it was the most normal representation of everyday life that disabled people face.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26He's very reliable.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31It's not fair. You know what's involved and so do Dad and Blair. You're all used to me.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36I got quite a lot of fan mail where people... You can't really call it fan mail,
0:19:36 > 0:19:42but letters from people saying you shouldn't be able to live, let alone be on television.
0:19:42 > 0:19:48You have to deal with that emotionally and figure out how to react to that and not react to that,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53not to take it personally and realise that you can't please everyone all the time.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58Some people just take offence to a disabled person. It could have been a black person or gay person.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00It was just a minority person on TV.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05Eldorado gave Julie Fernandez a regular role as a wheelchair user
0:20:05 > 0:20:07on mainstream TV.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10A pity then that the show was panned by the critics
0:20:10 > 0:20:12and canned after only 12 months,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16which was a shame because for years afterwards, none of the soaps
0:20:16 > 0:20:20have done disability particularly well, if at all.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22Bye!
0:20:22 > 0:20:24"EASTENDERS" THEME TUNE
0:20:24 > 0:20:29EastEnders is just not a great place to be in a wheelchair -
0:20:29 > 0:20:34the square and the houses and the pub and the cobbles.
0:20:34 > 0:20:40The Stannah Stairlift is invisible because that will take up too much screen time, it'll need explaining
0:20:40 > 0:20:44and it will make a terrible noise when the cameras are rolling.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48There are endless ways for disabled characters on TV
0:20:48 > 0:20:53to be allowed to forget they're disabled, to oil the wheels of the story line.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57How many people go in the bar at Coronation Street in a wheelchair?
0:20:57 > 0:21:00People in wheelchairs don't drink? My foot, they don't!
0:21:00 > 0:21:05It is that laziness of especially, I guess, those lighter soaps
0:21:05 > 0:21:09where they're thinking, "This will make an exciting, interesting story,"
0:21:09 > 0:21:15then, "No, if we do this, he'll have to be in a wheelchair and that'll really be annoying.
0:21:15 > 0:21:21"We'll have to fold it up and put it in a car. He won't be able to go upstairs. Let's get him get better."
0:21:23 > 0:21:28When soaps have done the disability thing, it's often not been good.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30There's a strange and sinister trend
0:21:30 > 0:21:36where disabled characters in the soaps have been either mad or bad, or both.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41Nick Cotton, who is demonic, Nasty Nick through and through,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45fell off a viaduct, then was in a wheelchair temporarily.
0:21:45 > 0:21:51I think that sort of comes under the "punish the evil character by giving them something awful to cope with".
0:21:51 > 0:21:57"Describe the problems you have and the help you need with your toilet needs."
0:21:57 > 0:21:59I don't know. You put something.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Chop off the arm, chop off the leg, shove him in a wheelchair
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and then as the baddie, they've got their karmic comeuppance.
0:22:07 > 0:22:13I've never felt evil cos I'm a wheelchair user. There's probably plenty of people who think I'm evil.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18I think that's where there's a very fine line between how you show disability.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22I hate shows, for example, where a character has an emotional flaw,
0:22:22 > 0:22:26so they put him in a wheelchair and he meets an understanding woman
0:22:26 > 0:22:30who teaches him how to love and suddenly he can walk.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34Or he was blind, then his eyes were opened metaphorically and literally.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37You know, I can't stand that crap!
0:22:37 > 0:22:40# Oh, neighbours... #
0:22:41 > 0:22:45I'm sorry, Kiruna. The Aussies aren't any more enlightened.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50In Neighbours, Paul Robinson had a foot chopped off. Well, he had been rather naughty.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Affairs, more affairs, leaving his wife an hour after the wedding,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58splitting up his daughter's relationship, control freakery,
0:22:58 > 0:23:05ruthless business, trying to ruin Harold's business. If anybody needed their leg off, it was that man.
0:23:05 > 0:23:10It was quite a move. We hadn't seen it done on another soap before.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13It's allowed the character to seem even "badder",
0:23:13 > 0:23:18that he's been disfigured and punished in such a terrible way.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21A very moral universe.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25- # Because I'm bad, I'm bad - Really, really bad - You know I'm bad... #
0:23:25 > 0:23:29This bizarre morality is not just confined to soaps.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33Great writers, including the Bard himself, were at it.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36"Now is the winter of our discontent..."
0:23:36 > 0:23:43Shakespeare, what he was doing there was making a connection between disablement and badness
0:23:43 > 0:23:47and that has been made over the years many, many times.
0:23:47 > 0:23:53James Bond - all the baddies had something. They always had a sort of weird eye or an eye patch
0:23:53 > 0:23:57or something that made them not right,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00so there is a kind of link which is a bit wrong.
0:24:00 > 0:24:07Captain Hook's lost a hand. He's got that scary hook. And the Daleks are pretty evil.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11- Exterminate!- And they've got the meanest wheelchairs I've ever seen.
0:24:11 > 0:24:17The supreme creature, the ultimate conqueror of the Universe, the Dalek!
0:24:17 > 0:24:23The Daleks were created by Davros who was a wheelchair user
0:24:23 > 0:24:30and he creates a race of psychotic killing machines in his own image,
0:24:30 > 0:24:35which, you know, I can't say I've ever been tempted to do that.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39I can't seem to find the time, really.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41No!
0:24:41 > 0:24:43No!
0:24:43 > 0:24:47I quite like the '70s "disability equals evil".
0:24:47 > 0:24:53I'm an actor, British and disabled. That's as calculatingly evil as it can be, yet we don't get the parts.
0:24:53 > 0:24:59Strange attitudes about disability aren't confined to the dramatic cliche.
0:24:59 > 0:25:05In 1999, England football manager Glenn Hoddle was reported widely as having wacky views,
0:25:05 > 0:25:09linking disability to some sort of cosmic justice. It cost him his job.
0:25:09 > 0:25:16The Football Association sacked the England coach Glenn Hoddle because of his remarks about reincarnation.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21He reportedly implied that disabled people were suffering for sins committed in a previous life.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25I accept I made a serious error of judgment in an interview
0:25:25 > 0:25:29which caused misunderstanding and pain to a number of people.
0:25:30 > 0:25:36A sort of moment of bonkers-ness. It was so inappropriate and not that long ago.
0:25:36 > 0:25:42One can't help thinking that there were a few people out there, "Yes, he speaks the truth, that Mr Hoddle."
0:25:43 > 0:25:49These are ideas literally back from sort of witch-burning days.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52- Whoa, what's the rush? - It's nearly time for Big Fun Time...
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Those whose opinions about disability owe much to the teachings
0:25:56 > 0:26:00of the Witchfinder General are still out there.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02I'm pretending to be a puppy.
0:26:02 > 0:26:08- I can see some long... - When Cerrie Burnell became a children's TV presenter,
0:26:08 > 0:26:12it was meant to herald a whole new age of acceptance on television.
0:26:12 > 0:26:18For Cerrie, it was the job of her dreams until some parents complained it was giving their kids nightmares.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22It's almost time to turn off the torch and say "night-night".
0:26:23 > 0:26:28I got a phone call saying, "Have you read The Daily Mail today?"
0:26:28 > 0:26:34I expected something, certainly, but I wasn't sure what form that was going to take.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37But I don't think anyone quite expected...
0:26:37 > 0:26:41- SHE LAUGHS - ..the chaos of what ensued.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45And I mean, it was very funny, really.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49No-one wants a hate campaign against them, but it does get you fabulous PR.
0:26:49 > 0:26:56"Does anyone else think the new woman presenter on CBeebies may scare the kids because of her disability?"
0:26:56 > 0:27:00The thing is, when you grow up with a disability, you've heard it all.
0:27:00 > 0:27:07There's nothing that you haven't heard before and I suppose in some ways you develop a thick skin to it.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12Her stump is one of the most hideous things I've ever seen and it makes me want to vomit.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15You wouldn't want these near any children.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18She's got a bit of a stump.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20She's a great TV presenter. End of.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23Now here's the gallery.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28Kids' TV has, on the whole, been showing the grown-ups
0:27:28 > 0:27:31how to integrate disability into the mainstream.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35There was Vision On using sign language.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37Thanks for sending your paintings.
0:27:40 > 0:27:45Ant's blinding in the shocking incident with the paintball gun on Byker Grove.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49- I can't believe how well...- I don't want a medal for living my life.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56And there was Grange Hill, giving Francesca Martinez her first break.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59You clumsy idiot, it's all over my skirt!
0:27:59 > 0:28:05I always think children are far more accepting of difference. I think they're more honest about it.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09They'll come out and say right away, "What's wrong with your leg?"
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Then you tell them and they go, "Oh, cool."
0:28:12 > 0:28:16Do they notice if someone's got a gammy leg or only one arm?
0:28:16 > 0:28:20Or no fingers? Do they hell! They just get on with it.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23You know what they want to know most? If it hurts.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26When they know it doesn't hurt, they relax.
0:28:26 > 0:28:31Then they want to see how you do stuff, then you show them a few things.
0:28:31 > 0:28:38You say, "Mummy took a bad pill," or whatever the reason is for your impairment, and they're quite happy.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43You explain to children what that's all about and they go, "OK, Mummy," and they move on.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46Invariably, adults have the attitude problem.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56Sometimes the adults just try too hard.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00In the '70s, Blue Peter featured Joey Deacon
0:29:00 > 0:29:04who had cerebral palsy and had written a remarkable memoir.
0:29:04 > 0:29:10It was, no doubt, a well-intentioned attempt at educating the nation's kids about disability.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13It backfired spectacularly.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19Joey, you've achieved two of your ambitions. Have you got any more?
0:29:21 > 0:29:23STRAINS TO SPEAK
0:29:25 > 0:29:31- Write children's books. - You're going to write children's books? Wow.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36It sort of backfired in that children started calling...
0:29:36 > 0:29:42..anyone who experienced any trouble kicking a football or anything "a Joey".
0:29:46 > 0:29:48As someone with cerebral palsy,
0:29:49 > 0:29:51yeah...
0:29:51 > 0:29:55that really didn't do us any favours.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59I was relieved, personally, when it became a playground insult.
0:29:59 > 0:30:04Cos if you were a Joey... If you were slow at maths you were called a Joey.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08The flid thing was all about being crap at sports.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12So it was like, phew, I got a term off. Know what I mean?
0:30:12 > 0:30:15I'll be down the pub probably.
0:30:15 > 0:30:16What?
0:30:16 > 0:30:21It can be, well, awkward dealing with disability.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23Why are you speaking like that?
0:30:23 > 0:30:28- It's a voice box.- It's great fun. Do you get those at a toy shop?
0:30:28 > 0:30:32- I haven't got any vocal chords.- You sound like the girl in The Exorcist.
0:30:32 > 0:30:39I think that's what we all really, really fear. The last thing we want to be is patronising.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41That creates a lot of awkwardness.
0:30:41 > 0:30:46"Do I shake her hand? Do I... Shall I just kiss her? What shall I do?"
0:30:46 > 0:30:53Chaps have come up and started talking and, within a few minutes, asked if I'm capable of having sex,
0:30:53 > 0:30:56which I find quite extraordinary.
0:30:56 > 0:31:01"Do you have a boyfriend? Can you have sex?"
0:31:01 > 0:31:08Really intimate stuff like, you know, like I'm going to talk about...really personal details
0:31:08 > 0:31:14about really intimate areas of my body just because they're curious.
0:31:14 > 0:31:20I remember I was in the supermarket and this woman came up and said, "Did your mother do drugs?"
0:31:20 > 0:31:22I said, "I don't know. Ask her."
0:31:22 > 0:31:27When people go, "Shall we go for a walk?" And...I get what that means.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31That doesn't bother me in the slightest, but it horrifies people.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34Or, "Step over here." That's fine.
0:31:34 > 0:31:40I don't even flinch. If somebody goes, "Shall we go for a walk?" and I go, "Well, I can't walk!
0:31:40 > 0:31:46"Don't be stupid," that would be a stupid, pathetic reaction on my part.
0:31:46 > 0:31:52I'd much rather people said, "Ooh, what charming flippers you have. I'm sorry, I mean hands,"
0:31:52 > 0:31:57than not say anything at all. And flippers is fine.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01This is phocomelia. It means seal-like limbs.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05Seals have flippers. It's fine. It's why I don't like playing Canada.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08They might club me round the head.
0:32:08 > 0:32:14- Nice of you to come. I hope you're being looked after. - Meet Bob. He owns a garden centre.
0:32:14 > 0:32:21Recent British comedy taps right into our difficulties with social awkwardness,
0:32:21 > 0:32:25from Alan Partridge to the multi-award-winning The Office,
0:32:25 > 0:32:29using disability as a source of often cringeworthy comedy.
0:32:29 > 0:32:35I think what The Office does brilliantly, in fact, what Ricky Gervais always does brilliantly,
0:32:35 > 0:32:41is shine the light in these areas we don't really want to look, don't really want to go,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43but we know we should.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46It was great on many levels, really.
0:32:46 > 0:32:52It was such a clear indication of what not to do with a friend who's a wheelchair user.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56AKA the disableds. You know, a lot of money goes to these fellas.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59Not you. You're working.
0:32:59 > 0:33:05But if you do claim you could probably claim for other stuff. Just don't abuse the system.
0:33:05 > 0:33:10Ricky was always amused by my wheelchair. I'm amused by it.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14So we did Series One and there was no disabled character.
0:33:14 > 0:33:20When we started talking about Series Two, Ricky said, "I think we might bring this girl in a wheelchair
0:33:20 > 0:33:26"from the Swindon branch to join Slough." And I remember at the time just thinking, "Oh, God..."
0:33:26 > 0:33:30We brought in this character of Brenda because we wanted Brent
0:33:30 > 0:33:34to be confronted in a way with someone in a wheelchair
0:33:34 > 0:33:39and then just watch him kind of... interact with her, really.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41She's joining in with it.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44- Put this on? A little nose?- No.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48It's up to you. Up to her. Her own decisions.
0:33:49 > 0:33:56He's selfish. He's thinking about himself. "How can I use this disabled person to make me look good?"
0:33:56 > 0:33:59Not the right way to approach it.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02ALARM RINGS We'll get you out of here. All right?
0:34:02 > 0:34:04So...
0:34:05 > 0:34:09'I think when disabled people watch
0:34:09 > 0:34:11'those sorts of situations,'
0:34:11 > 0:34:17they work for us as well because they're very familiar situations to us.
0:34:17 > 0:34:18Ohhh.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21This isn't worth it. It's stupid.
0:34:21 > 0:34:27- Obviously in a real situation we'd take her all the way down. - Can't I just use the lift?- No.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31- Not even in a drill. Never use a lift.- We'll be out...
0:34:41 > 0:34:44'I remember that day very clearly.'
0:34:44 > 0:34:49I was saying to Steve and Ricky, "Please let me say something,"
0:34:49 > 0:34:55and they're like, "It's stronger if you stay silent." And it was quite strong.
0:34:55 > 0:35:01But the thing that scares me the most is that I've had disabled people come up to me since then
0:35:01 > 0:35:06and say that actual thing has happened to them. You think, "No!"
0:35:06 > 0:35:11That's happened to me. "Don't worry. We'll come back if we see flames."
0:35:11 > 0:35:14I'd rather get out now, just in case!
0:35:15 > 0:35:20- Welcome to Alcoholics Anonymous. - 'There's one scene in the pub'
0:35:20 > 0:35:26and he goes, "I'll just move you out," and just pulls her away from the table.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30'And you just think, "Don't do it!"'
0:35:30 > 0:35:34Oh, that's probably what... turns into it...
0:35:34 > 0:35:36So, looking forward to the weekend?
0:35:38 > 0:35:40That actual thing did happen to me.
0:35:40 > 0:35:47I remember saying to the boys, "I was just in the pub the other night and a guy wanted to get by
0:35:47 > 0:35:52"and I was just drinking and I suddenly found my wheelchair being pulled."
0:35:52 > 0:35:57That is the most offensive thing that anybody can do to me.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01It's not what they say, but do not move me. Do not touch my chair.
0:36:01 > 0:36:08I've been in a function where somebody sat behind me with their foot on my wheel, just rocking it.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13'Because they thought it was nice. And I get really quite annoyed.
0:36:13 > 0:36:18'That just feels like I'm having all my power and control taken away.'
0:36:18 > 0:36:24I watched it and thought, "Finally, it's actually a real portrayal
0:36:24 > 0:36:27"of life in a wheelchair for a young girl."
0:36:27 > 0:36:32"That's all right, Dad. We don't mind buying a drink for a cripple."
0:36:32 > 0:36:34But he said, "Eh...
0:36:34 > 0:36:39"B-But I ain't a cripple, son." "You will be if you don't buy the next round."
0:36:39 > 0:36:44Comedy's made a big journey over the past 40 years
0:36:44 > 0:36:48from the prejudices of '70s clubland through the politically-correct '80s
0:36:48 > 0:36:53to the freedom now to make jokes about pretty much anything.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57Oh, many of you are a bit shocked. You're close to fainting.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01Those guys, the political correct guys and alternative...
0:37:01 > 0:37:03Alternative comedy?
0:37:03 > 0:37:06Alternative to what? Laughing?
0:37:06 > 0:37:12They were commentators and not comedians. There's a lot more comedians coming through now.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16And it's really good to see. Good to see.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20Good comics that make you laugh! And that's what it's all about.
0:37:20 > 0:37:26You don't laugh at the disability. You laugh at the people doing the lines about it.
0:37:26 > 0:37:32Comedy and people's attitudes were so...wrong, basically, is the only way to put it, in the 1970s
0:37:32 > 0:37:39that you could watch someone on TV making jokes about black people and women and homosexuals
0:37:39 > 0:37:44and disabled people and there needed to be a reaction against that
0:37:44 > 0:37:47and it was to go probably too far the other way.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52If you grew up with the late '70s right on-ness and then Ben Elton
0:37:52 > 0:37:56being terribly, wearyingly politically correct in the '80s,
0:37:56 > 0:38:03to actually have the kind of jolt of reality of something gloriously politically incorrect
0:38:03 > 0:38:08like Peter Kay's Britain's Got The Pop Factor,
0:38:08 > 0:38:14a spoof talent show where there were contestants called Two Up Two Down...
0:38:14 > 0:38:16Two Up Two Down!
0:38:17 > 0:38:22# Tragedy When the feeling's gone And you can't go on, it's tragedy! #
0:38:22 > 0:38:27'It just made me weep with laughter and a lot of other people as well,'
0:38:27 > 0:38:32but the sense of that being slightly not allowed was very strong.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35- You're 100% through.- 1,000% through!
0:38:35 > 0:38:37Yes! Thank you!
0:38:40 > 0:38:42Oh.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47TOM BAKER: If you have a verruca and would like to share it with others,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51why not pop down to your local swimming pool?
0:38:51 > 0:38:55'Oh, look, it's me! Gosh, I'm hairy.
0:38:55 > 0:39:01'Pushing the comedy envelope that little bit further has been me and Matt as Lou and Andy.'
0:39:01 > 0:39:04Em, excuse me?
0:39:04 > 0:39:11Andy from Little Britain was the last properly contentious disability thing my mates got pissed off about.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14I thought it was quite funny.
0:39:14 > 0:39:20I wonder if you'd give me a hand. I'm here with a friend who you may see is in a wheelchair.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24And I need a little bit of help getting him in and out of the pool.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29I did find it very funny when he ran up the diving board and dived in
0:39:29 > 0:39:35cos actually I do know a few people who, em...who are a bit like that character, actually.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39But he does have a slight fear of water.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41You know, he...
0:39:41 > 0:39:45'That seems a bit cruel to me and a bit unnecessary.'
0:39:45 > 0:39:47That is a very funny sketch
0:39:47 > 0:39:52and I'm slightly annoyed with myself for laughing, but it's funny.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56The humour has got nothing to do with the wheelchair.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58It's because he's a lazy slob!
0:39:58 > 0:40:02And this wonderful, caring chap who is pushing him everywhere,
0:40:02 > 0:40:08when he turns his back, he goes off and does something quite eccentric. That is funny!
0:40:08 > 0:40:12It's like their disability is their need for each other
0:40:12 > 0:40:14and that's what makes it funny
0:40:14 > 0:40:18and human and real and quite sad, really.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22What's really interesting about Lou and Andy is that all the complaints
0:40:22 > 0:40:25were from non-disabled people.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28'What Lou and Andy were doing was OK
0:40:28 > 0:40:33'because they were actually subverting the care system.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37'And for me that kind of worked.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41'I've never had a disabled person find that remotely objectionable.'
0:40:41 > 0:40:44Did you shower?
0:40:48 > 0:40:50- Hey, hey, hey, hey!- What?
0:40:50 > 0:40:55- What?- Give me that back!- I'm a Vietnam veteran! Leave me alone.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57I'm a Viet...
0:40:57 > 0:41:01'In World Shut Your Mouth I did have an electric wheelchair'
0:41:01 > 0:41:05and I dressed up as a Vietnam veteran who supposedly had no arms,
0:41:05 > 0:41:08but basically was a shoplifter.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13When he'd go down supermarket aisles, everyone would ignore him
0:41:13 > 0:41:19and then my real arm would just steal things from people's trolleys.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21Sorry. It was funny.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24Yes, Dom, that was very naughty.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29Mind you, it is tempting sometimes
0:41:29 > 0:41:34to put on a limp, just a little one. Think of the advantages!
0:41:35 > 0:41:41One good thing about being in a wheelchair is you get a lot of stuff free. You get plus one at the cinema.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45And that is for a carer. That's what they call it.
0:41:45 > 0:41:50So I've often made female friends dress up as nurses.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54At drama school, I'd pretend to faint in pubs and they gave you a brandy.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56It was my cheap way to get drinks.
0:41:56 > 0:42:02We've all parked in a disabled spot outside a supermarket and got out and had to do a stupid limp.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05All you need is that blue badge.
0:42:05 > 0:42:10One can park right outside the shop and on double yellow lines. Brilliant.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14Being able to go to the front of the queue in Disney is not bad.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18First time, I had this huge guilt complex. It was, "Oh, no..."
0:42:18 > 0:42:20That's the Britishness as well.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25Other perks of being disabled - the mercy shag is always a good one.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27Had a few of them in my time.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30Thanks, Sarah, Natalie and Mary.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34Well, I would never do that.
0:42:34 > 0:42:40But I do confess to once - just once - using a disabled loo. Sorry.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45- You can't use the disabled! - Why not?- It's illegal!
0:42:45 > 0:42:49We've all been guilty of using the disabled toilet, let's face it.
0:42:49 > 0:42:54It's nice and big, you can take your coat off and there's always a mirror.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58It's a good place to have sex in if you pull on the night.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01That's the way to look at it.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04Shocking! That's the last time I use one.
0:43:04 > 0:43:11These facilities were hard fought for and not for people too cheap to get a room.
0:43:11 > 0:43:16When I was young, as a wheelchair user, there weren't accessible toilets. Anywhere.
0:43:16 > 0:43:23I remember being in London as a child with my mum and dad and someone saying, "Try Paddington Station."
0:43:23 > 0:43:26That was nine miles away.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30When you turn up to a disabled toilet, it's almost always engaged.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34And 90% of the time the person in it isn't disabled.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38I can give you that as a statistical fact.
0:43:38 > 0:43:43'Rather than coming out and limping, they just peg it to get out of sight very quickly.'
0:43:49 > 0:43:50Ohhh.
0:43:50 > 0:43:55- KNOCKING Hello? Are you all right? - I'm disabled!
0:43:55 > 0:44:00Those emergency cords exist and I have pulled one by accident.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03You think it's a light
0:44:03 > 0:44:07or it might be... I don't know. It could be a flush.
0:44:07 > 0:44:13I'm wise to it now. You'd think if anybody would know not to do it, it would be me, but I have.
0:44:15 > 0:44:16Ohh...
0:44:16 > 0:44:21- Oh, my God! What happened? - I fell off the toilet.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24'Graham Linehan, who writes The IT Crowd, loves the absurd.'
0:44:24 > 0:44:31And a small decision that Roy made led to him going back to Manchester on a bus
0:44:31 > 0:44:33with a group of disabled people.
0:44:33 > 0:44:38'That's what makes it at the end. It's the pain that Roy is under.
0:44:39 > 0:44:46'He knows that he's done immense wrong and yet, because he's on a very, very slow-rising lift,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49'he just has to front it out.'
0:44:53 > 0:44:58Hello, there! I didn't see you on the way out.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02# I'm all right, just dance... #
0:45:02 > 0:45:06Some people might say, allegedly, and we're not saying this ourselves,
0:45:06 > 0:45:11but there is one famous person who has perhaps, how shall I put it, been very upfront
0:45:11 > 0:45:15about their disability in the celebrity arena - Heather Mills.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18# Just dance! #
0:45:18 > 0:45:26The way she goes about it is she picks something that she's not really cut out for,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29has a go, it doesn't matter if she's shit.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33It's still going to be inspirational.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37Lots of people out there who are amputees, leg amputees,
0:45:37 > 0:45:42could see that she did it and probably quite well considering
0:45:42 > 0:45:48and it helped them, I'm sure, to realise that if she can do it then they can do it.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52So from that point of view I'm really grateful to her.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Dancing on one leg on ice - I can't even stand up on ice.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59On my hands and knees I'm terrified.
0:45:59 > 0:46:05Deep respect. I know I should think she's brilliant. She is a great role model to all disabled people
0:46:05 > 0:46:08and to her daughter and I loathe her. I can't help it.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12She's a good inspiration for people who want to grab a husband.
0:46:13 > 0:46:19In the dark and distant past, if you could put disability together with entertainment,
0:46:19 > 0:46:23what you ended up with was the freak show.
0:46:23 > 0:46:30Putting disability and entertainment together today is an unlikely pioneer - Big Brother.
0:46:32 > 0:46:38Big Brother - blindness, Tourette's. Never had a wheelchair, have they? It's that MASSIVE staircase!
0:46:43 > 0:46:50In 2006, Big Brother announced its first disabled contestant - Pete Bennett.
0:46:52 > 0:46:57He was on there, let's face it, because he's got Tourette's and it's good TV.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00I'm not... WHISTLES, BEEPS
0:47:00 > 0:47:02I'm not going to win. I'm not.
0:47:02 > 0:47:07I think it was great telly. He won because he was a great personality.
0:47:07 > 0:47:14What started off being a novelty act... He was ticking a box. "Get a cute guy with Tourette's."
0:47:14 > 0:47:18By the end of the show we knew him so well that you forgot that every other word began with F.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23I came in here to have a good laugh, to have a good time.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26Shut up, ya BLEEP! Shut up!
0:47:28 > 0:47:33In 2008, Mikey Hughes took up the Big Brother challenge.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37'The reason I went to Big Brother is, obviously, being blind'
0:47:37 > 0:47:43I feel blind people are shoved away... They're almost forgotten about in society.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46I wanted to launch myself onto the mainstream.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51CROWD CHEERS
0:47:51 > 0:47:57I came runner-up. 1.5% away from winning the show. One of the closest finals ever.
0:47:57 > 0:48:04I think I got that far because I did entertain, probably not because I'm blind.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08He was intensely patronised by people "helping" him.
0:48:08 > 0:48:13What was fantastic was to see him puncturing these preconceptions about a person with disability.
0:48:13 > 0:48:19- I see from a different perspective now.- Definitely. - I can see why Mikey is tired.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23The sympathy vote is the big worry in a way,
0:48:23 > 0:48:31but I suppose if you do win the show and get the 100 grand cheque, you think, "Nice sympathy vote!"
0:48:31 > 0:48:37That's one of the joys of Big Brother that they give disabled people the right to be equally flawed,
0:48:37 > 0:48:42mean, nasty, grabby, selfish as anybody else.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44Aaaoow!
0:48:44 > 0:48:50If Big Brother is an unlikely champion of disability portrayal, here's another surprise.
0:48:50 > 0:48:51# Hearts of Gold
0:48:53 > 0:48:55# Hearts of Gold! #
0:48:55 > 0:49:01For many people there's nothing worse than a bleeding heart charity show. Prepare to be patronised.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06'You get disabled people being given these dreadfully tacky'
0:49:06 > 0:49:11hearts of gold simply because they'd lived their lives against the odds.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16The irony there is that the reason they lived lives against the odds
0:49:16 > 0:49:22was because... not because of their bravery and ability to triumph over tragedy,
0:49:22 > 0:49:27but because of the barriers society started to put in their way.
0:49:27 > 0:49:34We, as a nation, have got ourselves into, I would say, looking at disabled people as charity.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38Never squat down as a disabled person in the London Underground.
0:49:38 > 0:49:46People will put money between your legs. Sometimes that's quite good, if you want chips and a pint.
0:49:46 > 0:49:52In the '70s and '80s you saw a lot of portrayals of disabled people
0:49:52 > 0:49:56but they were part of charity telethons
0:49:56 > 0:50:00and quite patronising documentaries
0:50:00 > 0:50:05and appeals on Blue Peter, that sort of thing.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08And when disabled people started to have a voice,
0:50:08 > 0:50:11to a great extent
0:50:11 > 0:50:15all of those programmes went away.
0:50:22 > 0:50:2850 years has seen enormous changes in how people with disabilities are treated, talked about
0:50:28 > 0:50:31and portrayed on the TV.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35And there's no going back. In 2009, a comedy drama series,
0:50:35 > 0:50:37a spoof reality show with Kiruna Stamell
0:50:37 > 0:50:41and Mat Fraser, broke new ground. It was credible,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45controversial and without a token wheelchair in sight.
0:50:45 > 0:50:52Starring six disabled actors, it may have just changed television drama forever.
0:50:53 > 0:50:59Six disabled characters all played by disabled actors, all played very well.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03'Hugely engaging performances and people being what they are.'
0:51:03 > 0:51:06What made you decide to do it?
0:51:06 > 0:51:13I didn't want another programme with Born Agains moaning about how they used to be able to see or walk.
0:51:13 > 0:51:20Nothing was taboo, so you got to kind of see a world that you don't very often get to see.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24'The disability was always there and it was always onscreen
0:51:24 > 0:51:27'and it did have an impact on the characters,'
0:51:27 > 0:51:34but it was the other aspects of their life - their friendships, their relationships, who they were -
0:51:34 > 0:51:37that also got space centre stage.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Oh. A nice run.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44Going to take it nice and slow.
0:51:44 > 0:51:52'In this day and age, if a character is disabled, they try to get an actor with that impairment to do it.'
0:51:52 > 0:51:57Hopefully, spacking up, cripping up or whatever you call it, that's over.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03But if more disabled actors get jobs, there's a problem.
0:52:03 > 0:52:09Until now, playing disabled has been a sure-fire route to an Oscar for the normals.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14Isn't it going to be discriminatory if they can't do this any more?
0:52:14 > 0:52:16Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18Oscar.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man. Oscar. John Mills, Ryan's Daughter. Oscar.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25- Yeah.- Seriously.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29You are guaranteed an Oscar if you play a mental.
0:52:29 > 0:52:36Kate Winslet in Extras points out that the quickest route to an Oscar is to play a disabled person.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38You know...
0:52:38 > 0:52:43Famously... You know, in 1931 there was a film called Freaks, a great film.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47It still holds the Hollywood record for the most disabled actors in it.
0:52:47 > 0:52:55And there's a bloke in it called Johnny Eck who has no legs. Pretty freaky. You'd look. I'd look.
0:52:55 > 0:53:01Apparently, the film rights to his story have been bought by Leonardo DiCaprio. That's what I heard.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04Probably the only way he'll get an Oscar.
0:53:04 > 0:53:11When able-bodied people play disabled characters, they win an Oscar. That's slightly weird.
0:53:11 > 0:53:17And, you know, you can even look at an able-bodied actor playing a disabled person and think,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21"It's just about the BAFTAs."
0:53:21 > 0:53:25Now if you cast somebody in a disabled role that was non-disabled,
0:53:25 > 0:53:31you'd be straight into a news studio having to defend yourself. You can't get away with it now.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33And that's progress, isn't it?
0:53:33 > 0:53:37Adam! I was getting worried. Charley said he dropped you...
0:53:37 > 0:53:44More progress - soaps are featuring new disabled characters with believable storylines
0:53:44 > 0:53:47played by a new generation of disabled actors. Hurrah!
0:53:47 > 0:53:53- Yeah, I do shake hands. - I knew that, I knew that.
0:53:53 > 0:53:59It's brilliant that we have disabled people playing disabled characters in EastEnders and Emmerdale
0:53:59 > 0:54:02and Hollyoaks. It's about time.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05It's been 17 years since Eldorado.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09For me, that really represents mainstream acceptance.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14And the mundanity of a soap, in a way I think it really allows
0:54:14 > 0:54:19for the representation of disability to be much more naturalistic.
0:54:19 > 0:54:20Statistically,
0:54:20 > 0:54:27there should be about four or five characters in there who are disabled.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32And gradually we've seen that happen with EastEnders
0:54:32 > 0:54:34over the last couple of years.
0:54:34 > 0:54:39She presumed I was a few noodles short of a chow mein.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43I love Hayley in Hollyoaks. She is having more sex than, well, me.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48It disproves that old myth that you're welded to your wheelchair
0:54:48 > 0:54:50with no feeling from the waist down.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56Frank, how credible are those claims?
0:54:56 > 0:55:02Disability is in the news as well. Literally. Look, there's ace reporter Frank Gardner in his chair
0:55:02 > 0:55:09and don't the BBC love showing it? You never see Fiona Bruce's legs, but you always see Frank's wheels.
0:55:10 > 0:55:17Frank Gardner's quite a good example of how things have changed. In the old days,
0:55:17 > 0:55:23if there was an impairment they'd do a really tight shot on just the eyes or something.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25"Don't show the difference!"
0:55:25 > 0:55:29Now they're like, "Look! Look! We've got a disabled correspondent
0:55:29 > 0:55:32"and we're very proud of him and his disability, which we're equal about!"
0:55:32 > 0:55:35Where there's discrimination
0:55:35 > 0:55:40sometimes tokenism is the only way to begin to shift that.
0:55:40 > 0:55:45I think it's worse not to have anyone on that's different
0:55:45 > 0:55:48for fear of being tokenistic
0:55:48 > 0:55:52than it is to be labelled tokenistic.
0:55:52 > 0:55:58Statistics show that approximately one woman in ten doesn't hear as well as she should...
0:55:58 > 0:56:03It can be complicated, this brave new world of inclusion.
0:56:03 > 0:56:08Cast a deaf actor in a deaf role and you can still get in a right old muddle.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13Recently I was casting a deaf actress. Some actresses came in
0:56:13 > 0:56:19and they were deaf, but didn't sound deaf. And they would say, "Do you want me to deaf it up?"
0:56:19 > 0:56:24And I found myself going, "Yeah, could you sound a bit more deaf?"
0:56:24 > 0:56:30They'd go, "You know I am deaf?" I'd say, "But you don't sound deaf. If I cast you, I'll get in trouble
0:56:30 > 0:56:34"for not casting a deaf person, so sound deafer."
0:56:34 > 0:56:39We have got quite a long way to go, but it is so good to see
0:56:39 > 0:56:45that finally some disabled people are getting into really good positions.
0:56:45 > 0:56:46George W Bush.
0:56:47 > 0:56:52- Thank you.- If you're a disabled performer and want equality,
0:56:52 > 0:56:59that does mean you're going to be judged equally with everyone else... and might not like what you hear.
0:56:59 > 0:57:05There used to be a reviewer for the Evening Standard who did a brilliant quote about something I was in.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09"Normally I believe in seeing the personality, not the disability,
0:57:09 > 0:57:13"but Mat Fraser's biggest disability is his personality." Very good.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16It's good to make jokes like that.
0:57:16 > 0:57:22There's more freedom to explore it maturely. You don't have to be as cut and dried now.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25You're allowed ambiguity, subtlety.
0:57:25 > 0:57:31I don't want special treatment because I'm disabled. I'd like a fair crack of the whip.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35It's like civil rights movements in America in the '60s.
0:57:35 > 0:57:42Would Obama be President if it wasn't for the civil rights action in the 1960s?
0:57:42 > 0:57:46So I hope to be Prime Minister one day.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50- # Reasons to be cheerful, part three - One, two, three...- #
0:57:50 > 0:57:56From Big Brother to Downing Street is some career curve,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59but as celebrity wannabes like Mikey brazen it out,
0:57:59 > 0:58:06it does seem that on TV and in the wider world, the person is emerging from behind the disability.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08BOTH: Happy birthday!
0:58:08 > 0:58:13When children's TV presenters want to move on to adult work,
0:58:13 > 0:58:15they kind of do FHM or whatever.
0:58:15 > 0:58:21I mean I just would never do that, but...I think it's funny that that's the question I'm asked.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25"We've seen your arm. Now let's see your tits."
0:58:25 > 0:58:28And that, dear viewer, is progress.
0:58:45 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2010
0:58:50 > 0:58:52Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk