大象传媒

Drama and Arts

The 大象传媒 has today unveiled a three-part plan designed to significantly improve representation of - and opportunities for - disabled people on and off air.

Published: 3 December 2019

大象传媒 Elevate - Progressing disabled talent in TV production

Drama: But When We Dance

But When We Dance is a touching and hilarious story about two people with lots in common - a great sense of humour, a love of dance, and Parkinson’s.

Writer Paul Mayhew-Archer says: "People with Parkinson’s are also funny and loving and irrepressibly optimistic, and I know this because I‘m one of them. When I was first diagnosed, my neurologist, who is a lovely man, told me: ‘You seem to find it quite hard to smile’. Well, I thought, maybe that’s because you’ve just told me I have Parkinson’s."

Producer Hilary Bevan Jones says: “But When We Dance is a captivating and unusual love story that Paul has written with warmth and wit. Tony and Emma have every reason not to fall in love - both live with a progressive disease that is currently incurable. But the experience of living with Parkinson’s can be mysterious as it can give as well as take away."

Lucy Richer, Senior Drama Commissioning Editor and 大象传媒 Executive Producer, says: "Paul writes with honesty, humour and hope about an important subject which will impact on many of us in our lifetimes. We are very proud to tell this story on 大象传媒 One."

This is an important film that will touch so many lives. Parkinson’s UK estimate that every hour, two people in the UK are told they have Parkinson’s, and around 145,000 people have Parkinson’s in the UK alone. Although onset of the disease tends to happen in later life, it can also affect people from their 30s onwards. With award-winning director Jonny Campbell at the helm, filming locations include the English National Ballet classes for people with Parkinson’s, which is where romance first blossoms for Tony and Emma.

  • But When We Dance (1x90’) has been commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Director of Content, and Piers Wenger, Controller of 大象传媒 Drama for 大象传媒 One. It is an Endor Production - a Red Arrow Studios company - in association with Clearwood Films. It is written by Paul Mayhew-Archer and directed by Jonny Campbell. Executive Producers are Lucy Richer for the 大象传媒, Paul Mayhew-Archer and Ellie Wood. It will be produced by Hilary Bevan Jones.

大象传媒 Arts: Monologues (w/t)

Disabled writer and actor, Mat Fraser (pictured above) curates a series of ambitious and challenging monologues, all performed by someone with a disability.

Each 15-minute monologue will capture a pivotal moment or event that forever changes the central character. It will also challenge the idea that there is any such thing as ‘normal’.

Using the model of the successful Queers and the Bafta-nominated Snatches (The Observer review described them as 'genius'), Mat Fraser will find experienced award-winning writers and performers and also emerging talent.

The monologues will be fiction but they will be based on factual research and lived experience and they will span the last 50 years of British History.

Mat Fraser says: "I’m thrilled to be curating this exciting, surprising, and revealing series of monologues around the disabled experience, for the 大象传媒. Disabled voices have been shut out of mainstream TV drama for too long, and this is a chance to showcase some of the wonderful, inventive, funny, dramatic, sexy, and searing potential available."

  • Monologues (w/t) 6x15 were commissioned by Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor 大象传媒 Four and Lamia Dabboussy, Executive Editor for 大象传媒 Arts and are being made by 大象传媒 Studios where the Executive Producer is Debbie Christie.

Alex Brooker - Disability and Me

The Disordered Eye

In this new film, disabled artist and filmmaker Richard Butchins challenges the importance of good vision in making great art.

He suggests that visual impairments have contributed positively to the creation of art: from the Renaissance to the present day, Richard explores how artists have fought a battle with poor vision and how it's gone unnoticed in terms of shaping the work of the great painters of the past. Richard feels these artists inadvertently paved the way for current artists to have the freedom to create - regardless of visual challenges.

From examining the work of Rembrandt, Cezanne, Monet and Munch, to the synesthesia of Kandinsky and some leading contemporary artists, Richard discovers surprising revelations about the effect of impaired vision on many painters of the last 150 years and beyond. The film also reveals how new scientific methods, progressive social initiatives and groundbreaking technology are shedding light on the lives of our most treasured masters, and opening up the art world to people who would never previously have been able to access it.

  • The Disordered Eye was commissioned by Mark Bell, Commissioning Editor, Arts and Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor 大象传媒 Four and is being made by What Larks Productions, where the Executive Producer is Claire Whalley.