Thriller Task - Research: Disabilities in Film & Television

Cinema has rarely touched on the disability subject, films are rarely seen having mentally or physically impaired characters. The first disabled character portayed by a disabled character did not star on British Television until 1992 in the BBC soap "Eldorado". In the present day; drama has made space for disabilities such as motor neuron disease, obsessive compulsive disorder and multiple personality conditions. But most parts are still played by able bodied actors, disabled actors and filmmakers continue to fight to be equal in there stories and past being depicted on television. (Source: Unlimited: Disability on Screen - BFI Disability Article)

The study of a small screen diversity came up with results showing that younger and male people are more represented in television and the representation of disabled, ethnic minorities, and lesbian, gay and bisexual people were much less. These statistics below show how disabled people are represented in television:
Women: 42%
Over 55: 16.1%
Minority ethnic: 13.4%
Disabled: 2.5%
Lesbian, gay or bisexual: 1%
(Source: Women, Old and Disabled Under-Represented - The Guardian Article)













Many disabled actors were embarrased to take on disabled characters on television. In addition to this, many disabled people are absent in shows such as soaps and quiz shows despite having more than 250 disabled members in the Actors Union in the UK. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant create projects which go against the culture of discrimination, and they highlight these issues. Their new series, Life's too short, which stars Warwick Davies playing a twisted version of himself.
(Source: Ricky Gervais and Disabled Actors - The Guardian Article)

"There aren’t enough disabled people on TV. To address this, the BBC has announced plans to quadruple the number of people with disabilities it puts on television by 2017." This shows that tv corporations are now beginning to represent more disabled people on TV. This is shown as there is next to nothing about disabled characters on television series or movies in the present day.
(Source: The BBC’s Plans for More Disabled People on TV - New Statesman Article)

This has shown that in the film and television industry, there is a problem that not enough disabled characters being represented and that there will/needs to be an increase. This has given us the decision in whether we should consider having a disabled character in our opening of the thriller. We have given this a thought as we are considering the use of a disabled character as a way to promote that all disabled people are not to be stereotyped.