Disability inclusion in Hetty Feather Interview with Hugo Cracknell

Having started acting around the age of six British actor Hugo Cracknell, began his professional career after gaining the role of Edwin in CBBC’S children’s drama show Hetty Feather. Which he has starred in since the shows fourth series. 

Having been a massive fan of the Hetty Feather books I was kind of disappointed that the series was not going to go in the same direction as the books. 

As I thought about the logistics, I realized that for the show to continue it needed to be set in one place rather than spread out all over the country like Hetty’s book adventures had been.

I also realized that there was a lot of potential for new characters if it was set in a posh house with a family & a whole new set of servants. 

 I’m not sure what I was really expecting from the Calendar family, but I definitely was not expecting a disabled character. 

I think if anything my thoughts were mostly on how I presumed they would be portrayed as posh stuck up wealthy Victorians to my utter delight they turned out to be, for the most part very well rounded & very enjoyable to watch. 

This show gave to me what at the time I felt I didn’t have, a disabled character that I could relate to. That may sound a tad extreme considering Edwin has been made up & is a Victorian but some of his scenes over the years have really made me think about my own life. 

There’s one scene in particular that has really stuck out to me. I’m not sure what episode, what series or even the exact quote. But it is but it’s a scene in which Jack is helping Edwin fix MR. Calendar’s old pocket watch. Edwin is struggling & begins to talk about how useless he feels as he cannot do move around as easily as others. There is another more recent one where he feels he cannot ride a horse as he cannot walk, yet he manages to face his own fears & realises that he can actually ride & is quite good at it. 

Although we get these glimpses into how Edwin feels about his life, his scenes are not all based around his disability, most of Edwin's scenes are based around his interests & show him being a normal victorian teenager. As well as having fun with his friends who always include him no matter how difficult it may be to find a way to make it possible for him to be involved or how big of a challenge they are facing. 

There a few scenes with Lady.Greenford where she talks about how Edwin should be shut away from society because the family needs to keep up a good name. She then proceeds to lock him away in the library with all the curtains drawn so no sunlight can escape into the room. 

Our modern world may be better at dealing with disability but things like this still happen within our society most of a less extreme nature but there is still ableism around & I still feel we have much to learn. 

I also loved how Emily wants to become a doctor as this would most likely be a result of growing up with Edwin & wanting to ensure future generations get better care than what he has witnessed her brother received. It also teaches children about the struggles faced by women within the Victorian community who wanted to better themselves with education then going on to have a respectable career. 

Hugo was nice enough to let me ask him some questions about his time during Hetty Feather which is sadly coming to an end with Feather few Christmas episodes airing before the final series airs early next year. 

I really enjoy it so hopefully for many more years to come!

1•What piece of advice would you give a disabled person who wants to go into the entertainment industry? 

- Just seize every opportunity that comes your way, get involved with various theatre groups and school plays etc, go into it with an open mind and don’t have too many expectations and enjoy it!

2• What if anything do you think production companies could do to help make the industry more accessible for someone with a disability? 

- that’s a very tricky question, but I’m quite fortunate in that I’ve never really had a bad experience within the industry. I think that as time has gone on disabilities and other forms of diversity have become a lot more represented 

3•How important do you think it is for disabled people, especially children, to be able to see themselves being represented well on television?

- I think it great we see more people with disabilities on tv, as I don't think it should be something to be ashamed of, and hopefully, it can provide some inspiration to kids with disabilities

4•One of the things I love about Edwin's character is that everyone seems happy to push him around & involve him even on the most dangerous of missions, but how different do you think Edwin's character would be if he was from a poorer Victorian family? 

-Yeah it’s always fun working with everyone, but I definitely think that his life would be ten times more difficult if he was poor especially back then but he’s a very positive character so I don’t think that would change 

5: Have you learnt anything from playing Edwin that that helped you in your everyday life? 

- It's definitely opened my eyes to how much harder life was back then as opposed to now, also the wheelchair I use is so heavy, so I don’t know how anyone would cope. 

6: How has playing a disabled character in a Victorian setting been different from previous roles set in the present day?

 It’s a lot of fun as I said the wheelchairs are a lot heavier and very different also the costumes are really cool as well

Hugo told me he really enjoys acting and hopes to do it for many years to come, I cannot wait to see what he does next. I hope you all enjoyed hearing my thoughts as well as Hugo's on disability throughout Hetty Feather & a massive thank you to Hugo who allowed me to ask him questions about his time on the show & his thoughts on disability inclusion thought-out television. 

Flatmates

Before I proceed to write this blog I should probably explain the plot of the show, Flatmates is a BBC comedy series written and created by Gary Parker, Stephen Andrew & Raymond Lau & stars 

Richard Wisker Tallulah grieve, Theo Stevenson Grace hogg ~Robinson & Nethra Tilakumara 

the show follows characters from a CBBC children’s series Millie Inbetween as they venture into adulthood. Having watched Millie Inbetween until the end I was curious to see how this was going to play out. 

Upon finishing it, I realized that I Never watch anything with main characters my own age

 I have no idea if this is because I don't feel I will be able to connect to them as my life is so different from most young people, or that I only really tend to watch BBC police shows or kids T.V, the main reason I gave this a shot was purely through others views & nostalgia for characters I already loved. 

I then realized I could relate to them in many ways. Craig’s complete lack of realization is me most of the time, Declan’s extreme niceness and wanting to impress, Mel’s lack of self-esteem,& just general character awkwardness. 

During this series I laughed way harder than I have in a long time, I was up in pain & wanted a distraction so I watched "keeping it real" & "Saving Craig" whilst absolutely bawling my eyes out (I was feeling especially emotional & had been all day) 

 It's so important, especially in today's society to be showing vulnerability within young people, as if it is shown it allows for people to feel less alone. 

Something becoming normalized gives a chance to those who would generally not to speak up feel more inclined to do so.  

My favourite episodes were saving Craig for its raw realness & showing believable friendships. I also really loved the Cosplay episode for highlighting that older teens/adults still use fantasy to help with everyday struggles & no matter how old you are you should still feel free to dress up have fun can dress up. 

 There's probably much more I could say but whenever I have done reviews before I tend to mention everything I loved & it gets bogged down with spoilers so I'll leave it there.

 If anyone is reading this, please take a minute to watch this brilliant show. 

If this show gets picked up for a series two I would love to see a disabled character

as anyone who has ever read a blog of mine knows I am massive on disability inclusion & after finishing this series I began to wonder how interesting it would be to take a this or similar concept, then add a disabled character, I'm guessing for this to work it would need to show the actual world. 

I know that if I was well enough to get a job it would be so much harder for me along with doing other normal adult things but disabled people get jobs all the time & a lot live things normal adult lives. 

Even if you don't live with these issues I believe you should educate yourself on them, they should be talked about in the media & expressed through television. Which is why I'm currently working on my interview series to try & get people to open up about disability & get people talking. 

Update: I've just read this back & realised how extremely long it is so well done if you've made it to the end 

  

Disability and telivision

I have been wanting to write a blog on T.V/Film & the media for a while but had no idea where to start. My plan is to simply do a series of blogs where I ramble about the media as a whole with a few added interviews chucked in. ive started with some stats I found that are even lower than I imagined (I thought they would be pretty low) They should be about accurate but please correct me if there not, I found them scattered around different websites & really hard to find. 

According to a report by the vulture written in 2016 showed that 95% of actors playing disabled roles were in fact not actually diabled. Whilst an article by Disability talk revealed around less than 2% work within production & even less in distribution. 

Although disabilities are being shown on screen it is clear that the people playing them are not the people who are living daily with these conditions. 

But why is this? 

When I first got ill I didn't really stop to think about it, I was asleep most of the time & couldn't do a lot. But as I got better, I realized I was looking around for something where I felt I was being represented. Something that made sense to me in my new sick reality. 

 The thing to remember is that within these moments I felt all alone & wanted something that showed my reality but there didn't seem to be anything or anywhere to find it.

This was the point where I felt the world was dismissing the fact I existed

It was as if I was living this life where everything was going on around me & in the eyes of everyone else other than those closest to me I wasn't actually there. Disabled people didn't seem to exist as there was none in wheelchairs on the T.V or in the media. 

Having had a passion for writing fanfiction/script writing in my early teens I looked up disabled script writers. I was heartbroken when I found absolutely nothing online. I'm sure that this probably is a thing google does not have all the answers (I hope).

I would like to think that disabled people are writing. I would also like to believe that they are creating pieces of media weather it be articles online or visual pieces of TV,Film or Vlogs that they post online.   

I will admit after having to actively look for it I did start to notice more diabled characters in shows but you have to look a lot harder than you should.  

 I watch a lot of kids T.V because it tends to be simple plots that even on my tiredest of days I can follow , but also because I feel represented. I looked back at old shows I watched as a child & realized that inclusion has always been there through apart of it. I remembered Layla in The story of Tracy Beaker & then later on Frank in Tracy Beaker returns I wasn't unknown to disability on television it was ingrained in me from a young age,it was normal so I didn't notice. 

Having realized this, I started to notice how good the BBC actually are with their  inclusion, especially on their children's channels.

Many CBBC shows I began watching years ago now have characters with some form of disability. What is also really well done is that other than the odd comment (mostly by the character who is disabled) it is rarely questioned so just becomes normal, which is how I believe we should be viewing these issues.

Children seeing themselves within the media from an early age will make sure that they never feel isolated & that they know they are not alone in having the issues they do on the other side of the coin 

If you grow up with them you don't question them. 

You know or at least have some idea on how to react around disabled people what to or what not to say & how to start up a conversation. It all begins by showing children that not everyone can do what they can & that some of their peers need more care or have additional needs. 

Interview with Liam Bairstow

English actor Liam Bairstow (born 1st April 1989) began his role as Alex Warner (Nephew of Cathy Matthews) in Coronation Street in September 2015. 

After being discovered whilst attending a workshop run by Coronation street for actors with disabilities named "Breaking Through". Coronation street were so impressed by his abilities, they offered him the role of Alex Warner,producer Stuart Blackburn describing him as " a really great actor with a wonderful sense of timing." & his decision was nothing to do with political correctness. 

Liam was born with Down's syndrome &

 joined an acting school specialising in nurturing disabled talent named "Mind The Gap" in 2009 at the age of 21, Liam has now been studying with "mind the gap" for ten years & whilst there has portrayed several roles within the company including a national tour of Treasure Island in which he had to portray six different characters.

Liam also does a lot to advocate for disabilities & agreed to let me ask him a few questions about his role as Alex & disability inclusion.    

Q:•How well do you think T.V networks go about casting people with disabilities?

A:my first answer to your first one  is there should go for casting because no matter what that everyone needs to get out there and fight for what everyone   believes in

Q:Do you feel Alex's character has helped you with your own challenges in anyway?

A:yes because Alex has helped more then damra like mind the gap studios there Treat me like am there tv celebrity and i don't feel like i am one because sometimes i feel a bit down because everyone thanks i get special Treatment for what i do Alex has helped me as i am today

Q:Do you think social media helps you spread awareness for your disability & in what way? 

A:yes media has helped me a lot because I do some work for the awareness because i do football  for every Disability and is so nice to do this for a good cause

Q:As a disabled person do you feel well represented by the media?

A:yes i do I feel Represented in my own when am at damra school called there put my face on there website and there ask me to do something I don't want to do and sometimes there use me and there don't Respect me and there don't  Respect my work and i Feel honored to be Represented by the Media and to Represent. 

go back to the media one i would love to put this media has helped me a lot but mind the gap studios hasn't helped me out when I need them  there thank them am not important to them

Q:As a disabled person do you feel well represented throughout television? 

A: yes i do because to me i love tv more mind the gap studios because there don't  want to get involved with me and when there buys life there push me to one side and Hurts my feelings  sometimes i feel a bit and down since being on coronation street is being 4 years now being mind the gap for 10 years and all there do cause Gospings   falling out blame me for it so yes i do feel that tv has helped me more increase in life