No bar to TV talent

Recent shows featuring disabled people and characters may have given actress Genevieve Barr hope, but they've also raised questions and dilemmas for her

I grew up in a middle class family, went to private school and so it was always expected of me that I would become a lawyer, a doctor, a banker, go into a trade that was safe and prosperous. Acting was seen as risky, self-indulgent and an infantile dream. Being deaf tipped the scales even further against me, and it simply wasn’t an option.

John Thaw was one of my favourite actors on television in the nineties. I loved his rough and grumpy demeanour, his quick-fire wit. Reading his biography recently left me admiring him all the more – that he stayed true to who he was; an authentic working class actor. In the 1950s, working class men were expected to work at the docks, the mines, the factories. Not act. Acting was a form of leisure.

When you look at the history of television, you see working class actors breaking the mould in the 1960s, followed by women, those of mixed race and homosexuals. I recognise that the battles are still ongoing in these categories and the fight is definitely still in its early days for disabled actors.

I remember reading an article in Disability Now about Kiruna Stamell, who played Carrie in Cast Offs. “I’m not disabled,” she said, “I’m short”. It made me laugh, in a good way. I wonder if I should say the same thing, “I’m not disabled, I’m deaf”. Disability is so diverse, and we all tend to get lumped into the same category. Perhaps the way forward for mainstream television is to recognise us all as individuals. Certainly, that’s how I want to be judged – as a brilliant actress, an individual who just happens to be deaf.

However, does it weaken our fight and negatively impact on the progress to be made, if we don’t all fight under the “disability” banner?

I have a lot of respect for disability-centric programmes, such as Cast Offs and The Silence which I did earlier this year. It was a fascinating subject to explore – the conflict about cochlea implants and the struggle to deal with parents who saw your impairment as a tragedy. But then, these programmes are still so rare and also, from the view of an actor, if these are the only roles available for disabled actors then the opportunities that come round are still very few. So do we sit and wait? Isn’t it better to get disabled people in non-disabled roles, so disability becomes a non-issue in the casting?

It’s a catch-22 situation.

Let me explain this. I have never hidden my disability. I have never worn my hair down to hide my hearing aids, or stayed quiet as a mouse to reduce attention to my deaf voice. But I now do speech therapy three times a week, so that I can sound more hearing. If I sound hearing, then I become more acceptable to play hearing roles. Where I can develop my acting skills, and have a successful career because I’m good at it. My dream. But then I think of my role models like John Thaw – who instead went the other way – celebrated his difference and made it workable in television. Or Kiruna, who said “I’m short, so what?” She doesn’t put on a pair of platforms and pretend to be tall.

I feel a bit of a coward. And perhaps fortunate that my disability is one where, if I work hard enough, I can make it hidden. Not everybody has that option.

When will disability be accepted as normal, and/or engaging and interesting to watch? When will producers and directors either embrace disability as adding a unique element to their programme, or consider it irrelevant and a non-barrier to making high-class television?

I’m optimistic that with the calibre and number of programmes that we have seen on television more recently, the wait isn’t going to be too much longer. But we need more people on the sidelines. More people in production crews, more writers who continue to tackle and explore disability and more people who recognise that disability is not the central element to a disabled person’s life.

I play rugby. I am a terrible cook. I like cheesy films. My interests haven’t been determined by my disability, and nor has my passion for acting. Give disabled actors a chance to show you what they have to offer. We all have a right to follow our dreams.