London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 11, 2025

Actors ‘told they’re too disabled’ for disabled roles in UK television

Actors ‘told they’re too disabled’ for disabled roles in UK television

The screenwriter Jack Thorne calls for production companies to adopt quotas for people with disabilities
Actors have been told they are “too disabled” to play disabled roles in popular television series, with parts instead going to able-bodied people, according to a leading screenwriter who has called for television companies to adopt quotas for people with disabilities.

Jack Thorne said funding for shows featuring disabled characters is difficult to obtain, disabled writers are regularly unable to attend script meetings because production offices are inaccessible, and recalled the time a friend who uses a wheelchair was forced to crawl along a muddy floor to reach her desk while working on a film shoot.

As a result, he said, disability is increasingly the “forgotten diversity” in the television industry, and representation of disabled people remains abysmal, in front of the camera and among staff behind the scenes.

Even when roles are made available, they tend to be “disabled people fitting in with non-disabled narratives”, with television producers often offering tokenistic roles to disabled actors. Even Liz Carr, a lauded actor with a disability who had a long-running role on the BBC’s Silent Witness, “had to fight to be heard and to have her character taken seriously”.

Thorne made the comments while delivering the prestigious MacTaggart lecture at the annual Edinburgh TV festival, a speech that often helps shape discussion within the British television industry. He is now calling for television channels and streaming companies to commit to increasing the number of disabled people working on productions. He also wants them to set aside extra money in their production budgets to create a dedicated fund to make every production office and television set fully accessible and create rules for the building of further spaces.

The screenwriter, who spent the early part of his career struggling with chronic pain, said he no longer classes himself as disabled but feels he remains part of the wider disability community. He has built a successful career with credits ranging from This Is England, the television adaptation of His Dark Materials, and the script of the West End hit Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Thorne said there had been a revolution in terms of how the industry approached race in recent years, but other aspects of diversity were being left behind.

“I know the Black Lives Matter movement has a long way to go, and that no one is satisfied with our current state of affairs, but I can’t tell you the difference it has made to casting conversations,” he said. “However, the conversation on disability representation is nowhere near as advanced; I have had conversations about disabled talent for years where some of the most appalling things have been said.”

He said a big problem is the reliance on able-bodied people to play disabled characters, sometimes in the belief that disabled actors would not have the ability to play a role: “Since 1988, about one-third of all the lead actor Oscars went to actors who portrayed characters with disabilities, yet not one of them had the disability which they played.”

He suggested this led to simplistic portrayals of people with disabilities: “Disabled people and disabled stories tend to be relegated into two camps – heroes or victims, preferably both. Inspirational crips climbing up a mountain on their hands while we all applaud. Sometimes they’re funny, an acerbic best friend; mostly they’re just sorrowful.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
King Charles and Prince Harry Share First In-Person Moment in 19 Months
Starmer Establishes Economic ‘Budget Board’ to Centralise Policy and Rebuild Business Trust
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Brazilian police say ex-President Bolsonaro had planned to flee to Argentina seeking asylum
Trinidad Leader Applauds U.S. Naval Strike and Advocates Forceful Action Against Traffickers
Kim Jong Un Oversees Final Test of New High-Thrust Solid-Fuel Rocket Engine
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump to pause billions in foreign aid
Charlie Sheen says his father, Martin Sheen, turned him in to the police: 'The greatest betrayal possible'
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
Pig Heads Left Outside Multiple Paris Mosques in Outrage-Inducing Acts
Nvidia’s ‘Wow’ Factor Is Fading. The AI chip giant used to beat Wall Street expectations for earnings by a substantial margin. That trajectory is coming down to earth.
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
On the Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s Death: Prince Harry Returns to Britain
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Murdoch Family Finalises $3.3 Billion Succession Pact, Ensuring Eldest Son’s Leadership
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Court Staff Cover Up Banksy Image of Judge Beating a Protester
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
Generations Born After 1939 Unlikely to Reach Age One Hundred, New Study Finds
End to a four-year manhunt in New Zealand: the father who abducted his children to the forests was killed, the three siblings were found
Germany Suspends Debt Rules, Funnels €500 Billion Toward Military and Proxy War Strategy
EU Prepares for War
BMW Eyes Growth in China with New All‑Electric Neue Klasse Lineup
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
×