The Stage

Company launched to focus on programming for disabled

Published Tuesday 16 March 2004 at 13:25 by Jeremy Austin

Disabled actors Julie Fernandez and Mik Scarlet have launched The Wheelie Good Company to try to combat what they claim is a lack of programming for people with disabilities.

The company - which is jointly headed by writer Chris Page - has a number of shows in development including what the company hopes will become the first sketch show featuring disabled people aimed at the mainstream market. Ben Elton has been approached to help on the project, entitled Crippled with Laughter. The company is also working on a documentary on the abuse of learning disabled people in care homes

Fernandez said: “Mik and I have been in the industry 15 and 12 years respectively. We are both disabled artists who have worked together. We have had to multiply our talents. We both started as actors/presenters and, because this is such a difficult profession for disabled people, we had to be writers and producers.”

Fernandez, best known for her roles in The Office and doomed BBC soap Eldorado, and Scarlet also both share a love of music and are producing two programmes to do with London’s entertainment scene. Root Notes will explore the history of modern music while London Underground will preview music, fashion, clubbing and arts in the capital. But it is programming with the emphasis on people with disabilities that they are most interested in.

“Representation of disabled people in the media hasn’t been good over the years. It is improving but too slowly. I have had very well known producers saying I am an excellent presenter but because I have a disability I am going to frighten people,” Fernandez said, adding that audience research by the Broadcasting and Creative Industries Disability Network has show otherwise.

The Wheelie Good Company is hoping that changes in the law on October 1, when the Disability Discrimination Act becomes active, will help convince broadcasters to take its programmes. As well as legislation issues such as access, it will also cover the employment of disabled people. Wheelie Good will employ disabled and able-bodied people on a 50/50 basis.