Photograph: Manuel Vazquez/Bafta/Getty Images
There’s little in their new BBC sitcom, We Might Regret This, its co-creators Kyla Harris and Lee Getty shy away from. Harris also stars in the show, playing Freya – a charismatic, tetraplegic 30-something artist fresh from a transatlantic move to London. In need of a personal care assistant (PA), she turns to Jo (Elena Saurel), her chaotic, impulsive best friend. It doesn’t exactly go well. While storylines are entirely fictionalised, the terrain explored – between PA and care-receiver, yes, but also between friends: one disabled, one not – speaks directly to their experiences. And they don’t hold back.
Take what’s referred to as “The Shit Scene” in their shared shorthand. A particular on-screen sequence the pair believe gets to the heart of their series’s thumping success. “Bodily functions and fluids make us unnecessarily afraid,” says Getty, “and those fears feed directly into our fears of disability in general. Alleviating that fear, we hope, will help alleviate the fear of disability, too.” They make no apologies if what follows, here or on-screen, leaves you squeamish or icky; confronting sensibilities is very much their MO.
