Disability Now – Paul Darke

June 1999 TV Review

Having always been a bit of a fan of pointless existentialist entertainment such as daredevil riding, in my sadly lacking in fun life, I looked forward to watching Snapshot: Eddie Kidd (BBC1, May 4). Surprisingly, I was touched by the man’s determination and true courage in dealing with the results of his foolish attempt to do a jump after a night of drugs and drink. Sustaining severe head injuries in a jumping spectacular Eddie Kidd patiently goes through his rehabilitation. Sadly, the documentary was marred by the medical professions’ soundbites stating that Eddie is ‘a brave man’, bizarre editing and a grating commentary.

I had exactly the same reactions to Children’s Hospital (BBC1, May 4 & 11) and its inclusion of the story of Becky; a little girl with ‘brittle bones’ having an operation. She was beautifully herself and I was with her all the way. It is just unfortunate that highly educated morons get to make the peak viewing time programmes about us, simply replacing content and depth with pure sentimentalism does nobody any favours.

Psychos (Channel 4, started 6 May) – the highly publicised new cutting edge late night drama series from Channel 4 set in a ‘mental’ hospital – is a credit to its makers. They have been paid a vast amount of money and not had to give any thought to the resulting programme whatsoever. I wish somebody would pay me a few thousand pounds a week to make cliced and stereotypical rubbish for Channel 4; everybody else seems to.

I revisited Esther (ITV, 9 May) and was as appalled by it as before. Its inability to have even a modicum of intelligent content astounds me. Mik Scarlet called Esther, in DAIL (May), ‘condescending rubbish’ and from someone who works for From The Edge (and they know rubbish when they screen it) that is a truly insightful condemnation. Its piece on prothesis, like most items of the series, has no grasp of what disability is and panders to pathetic images of the impaired. Still, I predict great things for Heather Mills as she will be rewarded for learning her craft in television world’s equivalent of regional ‘rep’ theatre – amateurish crap.

ER (Channel 4, 12 May), which has been doing so well in its dealing with the issue of Deafness – it explores the issue rather than simply shows a pointless ‘positive’ representation – let the side down badly with its pro-euthanasia storyline. ER, in trying to give the demise of George Clooney some controversy, has unthinkingly fallen into a pro-euthanasia perspective with very little ambiguity. Let’s hope they follow the logic (of euthanasia) and euthanase the disabled doctor (only joking).

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