BBC pledges to consider disabled actors for all roles

Published Tuesday 13 November 2007 at 15:30 by Matthew Hemley

Equity Diversity Conference: Disabled actors will be eligible for all mainstream roles in future BBC productions regardless of their impairment, the BBC’s head of editorial diversity has vowed.

The move forms part of a strategy aimed at ensuring the whole of the UK’s population is properly represented on screen and comes after last week’s diversity conference organised by Equity.

At the conference, pressure was put on casting directors to ensure people with disabilities are given the same opportunities as non-disabled actors to audition for roles.

Actress Anna Cannings, who is blind, challenged BBC editorial executive of diversity, Mary FitzPatrick, to “improve onscreen portrayal” by opening up casting to disabled people “whether or not it is in the casting brief”.

She was backed by Louise Dyson, founder of VisABLE People, the only professional agency in the UK that specifically represents disabled people, who said most casting directors only showed interest in her clients if they were looking for someone to play a disabled character.

Dyson said: “Why not always consider disabled actors for all roles and only then eliminate them from the process if they don’t meet all criteria? This is instead of the current situation where we are beginning by assuming all roles are closed to disabled actors unless it is a disabled role. In other words, regard an impairment as a characteristic - one that may preclude an actor from a role but not automatically.”

Jenny Sealer, artistic director of the disabled-led Graeae Theatre Company, agreed and urged casting directors to “take a leap of faith” and cast “disabled people as actors” rather than to their disability.

Responding to the calls, FitzPatrick, who is responsible for making sure BBC channels represent the audiences they serve, admitted that up until now the BBC’s “strategy for on-screen portrayal” had not stipulated that disabled people should be considered for all roles but said it would be amended immediately.

She said: “This has been at the front of my mind but has not actually made it into the strategy yet. I will make sure it makes it in because a role is a role and at the end of the day if you are good enough to play that role then that is perfect.”

As well as promising to amend the BBC’s strategy, FitzPatrick admitted the Corporation needed to be “braver” with its on-screen portrayal of diversity, including its casting of black and minority ethnic groups.