PS: Did it feel overdue?
MF: It is overdue. You know, it's wonderful that we're having it now. I feel that it probably should have been 20 years ago, but it isn't: it's now, and I'm very glad. And I was super glad to get the gig of curating, because I do know an awful lot of really talented disabled people who are ready for exposure or what we might call "mainstream" drama exposure, but just haven't been casted or haven't been given the opportunities.
"It's 'pinch me, is this real?' And, yes it is: joyously, fantastically real."
I think about Tom Wentworth, who wrote "The Real Deal," which has Liz Carr, star of BBC's Silent Witness, acting in it. It's his first script on television, but he's been working in television as a script writer for five years. He's farmed out on that thing, and that thing, and going to write for this procedural, or that series, and he writes what we call a dummy episode. But never quite being trusted to do that thing. You know, this is his and many others' first time they've had their scripts on television — myself included! I've been trying to get my writing seen for ages, but this is the first opportunity. So, it's thrilling. It's "pinch me, is this real?" And, yes, it is: joyously, fantastically real.
Image Source: BBC America