BBC Two’s DDA drama Then Barbara Met Alan will premiere on Monday March 21st at 9pm, it has been announced.
Then Barbara Met Alan (formerly known as Independence Day? How Disabled Rights Were Won) tells the story of the people behind the campaign that eventually led to the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act. The one-off is told through the eyes of Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth, two disabled cabaret performers who met at a gig in 1989. They fell in love, had a baby and would go on to become the driving force behind D.A.N. the Direct Action Network.
Their incendiary “Piss on Pity” protest slogan brought an end to disenfranchising charity events and re-framed the debate around disability rights. Their post-punk sense of humour and spontaneous pickets shut down cinemas, restaurants, stations and even the London underground. And their fearless and coordinated attempts to handcuff their wheelchairs to buses brought Westminster to a standstill until their rights were enshrined into law. The drama, which was penned by Jack Thorne and Genevieve Barr, is produced by Dragonfly Film and TV (part of EndelmolShine UK) and One Shoe Films and stars Ruth Madeley, Arthur Hughes, Phillipa Cole, Reece Pantry, Fergus Rattigan, Nadeem Islam and Shreya M Patel.
TVWise’s UK Premiere Dates page has been updated with this new information.
