Watching two disabled people make love on prime-time terrestrial TV is something many disability campaigners thought they’d never see. But last month, in BBC Two’s widely praised drama Then Barbara Met Alan, we witnessed the eponymous Barbara and Alan enjoy being intimate in a scene that may well go down as one of the most powerful and moving moments of TV drama in 2022.
Starring Ruth Madeley and Arthur Hughes, the drama tells the true story of the group behind the unstoppable and fierce campaign of direct action that significantly moved forward the battle for disabled rights in Britain.
Written by Jack Thorne and Genevieve Barr, the series is told through the eyes of Barbara Lisicki (Ruth Madeley) and Alan Holdsworth (Arthur Hughes), two disabled cabaret performers who first met at a gig in 1989.
To mark the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act, the film will tell the true story of the activists who waged an unstoppable campaign for disabled civil rights in Britain.
Madeley said: “To have the opportunity to play such an incredibly powerful character and tell such an important story is honestly a dream, especially within the context of disabled, deaf and neuro-diverse history.
