You probably don’t know what happened when Barbara met Alan, but you should. Barbara Lisicki – the UK’s first disabled female comic – and Alan Holdsworth – AKA musician Johnny Crescendo – were two rebellious, punk-inspired performers on the 1980s cabaret scene when they met, fell in love and changed the course of civil rights history. The couple were the force behind the disabled people’s Direct Action Network (DAN), which successfully convinced the Conservative government to pass the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995. It was a landmark bill, the first of its kind in the UK.
So when it came to televising the story, a landmark approach was also required. “There’s never been a story about disability told like this onscreen before,” says Ruth Madeley, who plays Lisicki in the new BBC drama Then Barbara Met Alan. “There was one moment when we were filming, we had hundreds of disabled people on set, and it was one of the most surreal moments of my career. I thought: ‘Why does this feel different?’ It’s because I’ve never been surrounded by so many disabled actors and creatives in one space. It felt so incredible.”
