Disability Now – Paul Darke

May 2000 TV Review

Channel 4's The Slot, the 3 minute bit after their evening news, has been an almost entirely disability slot for the last month. Firstly they had a series of slots about the Client/Patient Relationships (6-10 March) followed by a week of Living With Brain Injury (13-16 March). Then they had two weeks of First Time (27 March - 6 April), a series of new shorts by directors with impairments new to television.

The first two weeks (Client/Patient Relationships and Living With Brain Injury) were both directed by Justin Edgar, a hearing impaired director at this very moment embarking on his first £1 Million budget feature called Large for Film Four. Justin is someone to look out for in the future and Large is very funny indeed.

First Time was an altogether different kettle of fish, not that they were bad or good. They just, well existed. One was, as with most of Channel 4's disability orientated stuff, left wondering: 'what was the point?'. Of course there is no point except to get a few remit brownie points.

It seems that Channel 4 follow the logic of the wonderful moment in Perfect World (BBC2, 17 March), a comedy series, that epitomised televisions apparent attempts at Cultural Diversity. Paul Kay, in talking to a marketing manager, suggest that the Asian secretary (the beautiful Nina Wadia, from Goodness Gracious Me) attend a meeting with a visiting dignitary who is keen on equal opportunities. The manager says: 'Yes, absolutely wonderful; dark skin, a woman and possibly a lesbian. What a shame she does not have a slight but visible handicap'. Astute stuff indeed. Obviously, the writer has worked in the media for Channel 4.

BBC 1's abysmal comedy drama series Dirty Work (16 march, 6 part series) is not much better. I do not mind the clichéd wheelchair user, a supposedly cancer suffering Robert Glenister, but to make a whole series using every cliché available is pushing it. At least it was not exploitation like Cutting Edge: The Five of Us (C4, 11 April), following the lives of five people with learning disabilities who share a house. Why did Channel 4 have to give an enormous amount of money to a production company to make a patronising docu-drama. It would have been better to let them make it themselves. Perhaps that would have been a little too cultural diversity for Channel 4.

Still, the best television I have ever seen made by a disabled person was David Hevey's wonderful Modern Times: 10,000 Private Eyes. The man has so much originality and talent it is staggering. Original and radical are insufficient terms to describe his talent. His apprenticeship on From The Edge has made him what he is today: the UK's leading extreme and radical disability television documentary maker. That he even does narration on other Modern Times documentaries of equal brilliance is just a minor indication of his worth to the series.

Out of so much other disability related television this month my only word of warning is to steer clear of ITV's That's Esther on Sunday's from 16 April. Words cannot describe how far this series has put disabled people back. You have been warned - watch it at your own risk.

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