Reunion

This year, the BBC is set to launch the drama Reunion (written by deaf Bristolian Billy Mager), ITV’s crime thriller Code of Silence stars deaf actor Rose Ayling-Ellis, and Retreat, a forthcoming BFI-funded thriller, is written and directed by Ted Evans, who is deaf, and features a deaf-led cast.

Then there’s the growing trend of deaf contributors on many of our most popular factual entertainment shows, with 2025 already seeing Imy as a contestant on The Great Pottery Throw Down and Sarah and Jon on Stacey Solomon’s Sort Your Life Out.

Over two decades, the ambitious, Sheffield-based independent production company Warp has built an enviable reputation for making edgy, compelling content, often featuring marginalised voices, and made for both the big and small screen. Titles include the award-winning feature film thriller Dead Man’s Shoes and, for Channel 4, This is England and The Virtues.

Warp has helped nurture the careers of such key talent as Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, who have returned to work for them again and again.

The four-part series follows Daniel Brennan (Matthew Gurney, Name Me Lawand), a man arrested over a decade ago for a crime that ostracised him from the other deaf people in his community. Now, he’s determined to atone.

As the four-part series starts filming in Sheffield, UK, the BBC has announced the cast. As the majority are deaf or use British Sign Language, the series marks a milestone in inclusive storytelling.

Matthew Gurney (Name Me Lawand) will lead as the prisoner, Daniel Brennan. Upon his release, Daniel is isolated, shunned by his close friends and the wider deaf community for his “heinous crime,” as well as the inaccessible hearing world.