BBC OUCH!
13 Questions:
Paul Darke
by Ouch Team
6th November 2008
|
|
| Dr Paul Darke describes himself as an academic, writer, artist and cultural critic. A long-time commentator on disability issues, he and his organisation, Outside Centre, are responsible for the Wolverhampton disability film and arts festivals. Paul also presents a weekly radio show every Wednesday on WCR FM in Wolverhampton - it has guests, discussion and music relating to disability. A bit like the Ouch Podcast. As a presenter, he is quite used to asking nosey questions; maybe this is why he was very easy-going when Ouch hurled 13 of 'em at him ... |
People think I'm ...
Scary - because they think that I think I know it all, when really I know I know nothing. We're all just scrabbling through life. |
I want to ban ...
All lorries over the size of a transit van. They are uneconomic, unenvironmental and a danger to the public. Everything should go by train. |
Not a lot of people know that I ...
Am a stamp collector. I probably have the best collection of disability stamps in the world. My favourites are African. They reveal so much about their countries and their view of disability, mostly in a negative way, but they are often gloriously bad like the one covered in white sticks celebrating money raised for the blind by a local rotary club. |
The best piece of advice I would pass on is ...
Listen and don't talk so much. It's stood me in good stead since I took it on board in about 1982. I was in hospital with a broken leg and ended up next to a Texan psychologist called Ferris, like the wheel. He gave me therapy for 6 weeks, mostly about listening and understanding. It changed my life. We’ve been friends since. |
I struggle with ...
My weight. I eat and drink far too many unhealthy things and have an intense dislike for green vegetables. It’s probably because of the special school I went to, whose primary aim was to destroy the taste of any food, particularly veg, by boiling it to death. |
I excel at ...
Being disabled I'm so insecure that I don't think I excel at anything. Maybe trying to be nice, however hard it is at the time. It may seem like the harder thing to do but it’s actually easier. |
|
My ideal dinner guest is ...
Harpo Marx of the Marx brothers. He played the disabled character fantastically. He’s a hero of mine. A genius in simplicity. What a perfect act! Obviously having a disabled actor in a disabled role needs to be a priority, but making films is a business. They need a big name to sell. |
I couldn't live without ...
Cinema. It’s the thing that stops me from getting headaches. The last film I saw was The Wave, a German film about the rise of autocracy. My PhD was on disability and cinema as well. |
Where do you spend most of your time?
At the computer, doing emails, letters, applications and appeals. Getting money either for myself or the organisation - usually dealing with fools and charlatans. |
My first job was ...
As a low ranking civil service officer. Bizarrely, I was in charge of machine guns in a barracks in Surrey. I was ordering weapons, getting rid of old ones and organising transport. It was awful because I am a complete pacifist. |
When I come home in the evenings I ...
Watch Family Guy. I love the use of disability, it makes me laugh. The policeman is a wheelchair user and there is a talking dog called Brian who, in one episode, brings blind people out for a day and does audio description for them in the cinema. |
My greatest achievement so far has been ...
Getting my PhD. It was very hard because I didn't have any basic education like O or A levels. I went to a special school which chose not to educate us. It was for kids with spina bifida. They probably thought we'd end up in a home or die. |
Being disabled in 2008 is ...
A nightmare and a joy. I think society is at a changing point on how it views disabled people. On one hand we have more equality than ever through legislation. On the other hand, the advances in medical technology and screening mean that there will be less and less of us. I'm hopeful and scared. |
