Disability Now
– Paul Darke
December
1999 TV Review
People with
Spina Bifida, my own personal choice of disability living, rarely features on
our television screens, so I was looking forward to Living Proof: Born Twice (BBC1, October 20). A documentary about Dr Joe Bruner; a
surgeon who operates on foetuses with Spina Bifida prior to their birth by
‘getting them out, operating, and putting them back in’ the
womb. It was quite extraordinary
and as I am Squeamish I actually had my eyes shut most of the time.
The
documentary should be praised for trying to validate the lives of people with
Spina Bifida but it far to often slipped into delusions of medical
empathy. Such as when Dr Bruner
questioned his views to abortion and people with Spina Bifida (he would now
consider not doing it). Missing
that point that most abortions are carried out on non-disabled children. Equally, when the commentary stated
that the common medical option for Spina Bifida was post-natal operations
– it is actually, by about 95% to 5%, abortion (no thanks to ASBAH
there).
Standing
Tall (C4, October 26), if taken as a light-hearted attempt at a post-modern
freak show was amusing and completely devoid of pretensions to serious documentary
film-making. What was little
other than the voyeuristic gazing at the tallest of the tall – giants
– managed to make me laugh at the crazy things we do those that are
different. Interviews with the
tallest man in Europe (from England – we are so small in most other
things) and tallest person in the world (they had to be an American didn’t
they!) were touching, heartfelt and, obviously, shot from a low angle.
The most
bizarre programme of the month was Correspondent (BBC2, 6
November) in which ‘blind reporter’ Gary O’Donoghue visited
a Ghanain village where river blindness affects one in five people. ‘Blind’ reporter O’Donoghue was introduced
as never before having covered disability issues until this programme. Obviously this was an astute comment on
the lads years of work on From the Edge or an insightful comment about the
content of From the Edge itself.
Sadly, and
one must presume, intentionally so, that the programme completely
de-politicised the issues affecting health and wealth in Africa, reducing it to
a state of individual heroics and only solvable through charity, for reasons
other than ignorance. Shame on
you, especially in an era in which Third World debt is being challenged
politically in the mainstream of Western Politics in a way that it never has
been before.
Disability
added immeasurably to the superficial nature of our television last month. Disability was seen in, amongst other
things, 30 Minutes: Let My Wife Die (ITV, October 31), 30 Minutes: Dying for Justice (ITV, 7 November), Smudge (C4, 1 November), The Shooting
Gallery: Patterns
(C4, 2 November), and, finally, in an episode of House Invaders (BBC2, November 5). As I said, superficial!
With
Christmas around the corner, I wish you all a supercalorific experience and
lots of disability TV spotting over the Christmas period – there will be
plenty of it on screen, so keep your eyes as well peeled as your Satsumas.
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