It was a night of celebration as The Royal Television Society North West marked 100 years of the BBC at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, by shining a spotlight on the broadcaster's groundbreaking new comedy drama Ralph and Katie. Ralph and Katie, which launched last week on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, is a spin-off of The A Word, which followed a young boy with austim.
Ralph and Katie shows there's no rule book for marriage, as two newlyweds navigate their way through love and independence. The six-part series episodes follow the continuing story of Ralph and Katie Wilson, who have Down’s Syndrome, focusing on the domestic challenges they face and issues faced by all newlyweds.
At the celebration event RTS chairman Cameron Roach emphasised that Ralph and Katie is "precisely the type of TV series that the BBC has always and should always produce" through its approach to inclusion. Both lead actors, Bolton’s Leon Harrop and Lewes- based Sarah Gordy MBE, who became the first woman with Down's syndrome to be made an MBE in 2018 for services to the arts and people with disabilities, have Down’s Syndrome.
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To a packed house of RTS members, industry influencers and Ralph and Katie’s cast, crew and writers, BBC Breakfast’s Naga Munchetty hosted a Q&A panel comprising showrunner and series creator Stockport born Peter Bowker, northern based writers Genevieve Barr and Lizzie Watson, producer and disability campaigner Jules Hussey, director Jordan Hogg and Coronation Street’s Cherylee Houston whose Triple C and DANC organisations provide opportunities and access for disabled talent across broadcast, media and the arts.
Some of the stars who attended the event included Bohemian Rhapsody and Waterloo Road star Matt Greenwood, from Rochdale, and Corrie actor Dylan Brady, who made the jump from Weatherfield’s cobbles to the Lake District for Ralph and Katie, which is also filmed at West Gorton’s Space Studios.
Dylan, who arrived in Weatherfield as footballer James Bailey's love interest Danny Tomlinson in 2020, plays the couple's support worker Danny Hyde. He said: “It proves that the barriers we’ve seen as immovable are actually just made up. We’ve found different, more inclusive ways to work on this drama that can challenge the TV and film industry on a whole."
He added: "You really can have every script finalised before you start shooting, because we did it. You can have 5 o’clock finishes, because we did it. You can make reasonable adjustments for whoever needs it, because we did it.
"You can enforce a 'no divas' policy and make it a pleasant shoot for everyone, because we did it. And it all worked. Beyond the industry itself, I think having a show with disabled people and their lives at the forefront will spark conversations and be an education for lots of people."
Matt, who played bullied pupil Martin Dunbar in the Rochdale-based BBC school drama Waterloo Road and a fellow patient in a pivotal scene when Freddie Mercury had just been diagnosed as HIV positive in the 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody, reprises his role of Tom Clarke who he played in The A Word.
He said: “It’s such a complete privilege to be a part of Ralph & Katie. Television has come such a long way, and though we have much further to go, we have celebrated what we’ve tonight. I have been very privileged to owe a large part of my career to the BBC and to have been able to play a part in helping bring its progressiveness even further into the future fills me with contentment."
The production introduced innovative processes to make sure the working environment was fully accessible. This included everyone involved wearing a name badge with their job title made clear and easy read call sheets.
Producer Jules Hussey said: "Manchester is a warm, if often wet! and welcoming city to film crews. Everyone helped make our job easy and fun. The crew at Space Studios couldn’t have been more accommodating. Dean Sinacola and his team at Space Studios went above and beyond what a supplier would normally do."
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