An Engaging idea

A new television production company is hoping to open up the industry to people with learning difficulties. Sunil Peck reports

A television production company run by and for people with learning difficulties is set to increase on-screen opportunities for disabled people. Engage TV is in negotiations with mainstream channels to develop programme and series ideas. It will also hold training workshops to equip people with learning difficulties with the technical and production skills to create their own films and TV programmes. It wants to gain the funding to open its own TV channel in the next three to four years.

Andy Stafford, an actor with learning difficulties from Gateshead's Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company, is optimistic that Engage TV will create more media opportunities for disabled actors.

“If someone from Channel 4 or BBC1 sees someone with a disability in a drama, they might think, ‘hang on, we are doing a play and we need someone with a learning disability. That person would be ideal for the part.’”

Charly Conquest (pictured above with Andy Stafford), project manager at Engage TV, says: “This is about opening up possibilities to a community with plenty of creative ideas and talent, but who don't get the same opportunities.” She adds: “The television that is out there already is made by industry professionals without much consultation with the community that they are trying to reach.”

The company is based in Newcastle but Conquest is “throwing the channel out to as many people as possible”. She is particularly keen to see films shot by people around the UK which could be broadcast. The channel has not been publicised outside the north-east, but Conquest has already had calls from self-advocacy groups in Derby and the south-east of England itching to get involved.

The idea for Engage TV developed after discussions between a film company and the Lawnmowers theatre company to produce a magazine-style DVD.
Engage TV will air documentaries and current affairs programmes and is developing the “world’s first learning disabled feature film”. But Conquest says that the flagship programme will be a soap opera.

“The way we are going about creating it is 10 weeks of script development workshops. We are going to get people to watch other soap operas and develop characters and dialogue.”

A scriptwriter who has worked on Emmerdale and Byker Grove will also attend to give script advice.

Conquest says that Engage TV will broadcast pre-recorded programmes at first, but she hopes that they will eventually be able to afford
a studio and the cameras to broadcast live. The channel has received local funding but Conquest is anxious to drum up revenue from sponsorship and advertising.

Transitions, the channel’s first production, tackling the issues facing young adults with learning difficulties, is scheduled to be available online in the spring.

• For more information, email Charly Conquest at charly@engagetv.co.uk