Why the BBC drama Then Barbara Met Alan brought tears to my eyes | Frances Ryan

To see on primetime television the activists who fought for disability rights in the 1990s was a profoundly moving momentBefore we even reach the opening titles of Then Barbara Met Alan – the BBC’s one-off drama depicting the fight for the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), which aired on Monday night – Barbara has graffitied “piss on pity” on a bus stop and turned down going for a drink with Alan because, in her words, she’d just end up getting drunk and giving him a blowjob. It is an instruction to the audience from the off to reject their preconceptions: this is not disabled people as you might think.The story of how disabled activists – led by Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth – used direct action to lobby for the UK’s first disability civil rights law is one you’d be forgiven for not having heard before. Disability history is not taught in schools. It is not dramatised for entertainment and is rarely the subject of documentaries; on the odd occasion that the subject is on British screens, it’s likely to have been from the US – as in the 2020 documentary Crip Camp. As a result, I’d wager most of the British public think disability rights were introduced in the 1970s along with other anti-discrimination laws, like those legislating against sex and race prejudice, and came about by benevolent authorities gifting rights to the grateful disabled.Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist and author of Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People – now... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2022-03-22 06:00:48 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Why the BBC drama Then Barbara Met Alan brought tears to my eyes | Frances Ryan"


Local Focus, Global Reach: Inside Time Out’s Ambitious Ascent

Global recommendations purveyor Time Out Group—which, a decade ago, essentially consisted of two weekly magazines and a licensing business—today boasts owned and operated media brands in 76 cities around the globe, licensing arrangements in a further 32, and an events business that tripled in... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2018-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Twitter gets Disney, NBC, Viacom to boost its NewFronts lineup

Credit: Illustration by Tam Nguyen/Ad AgeTwitter showed off more partnerships with publishers and networks at its annual NewFronts pitch to digital ad buyers on Monday night, describing plans with ESPN, Viacom, NBC Universal, Hearst, Major League Baseball and others.The media and messaging... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Fire and Fury pipped to No 1 in UK book charts by Lose Weight for Good

Booksellers hail strong sales for Donald Trump exposé, but Tom Kerridge’s diet book sets the most British tills ringingAlmost 60,000 print copies of Michael Wolff’s Donald Trump exposé Fire and Fury were sold in the UK last week, but the British public’s New Year’s resolutions meant the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Watch as Michael 'Fire and Fury' Wolff Leaves Colbert Vaguely Unnerved

Michael Wolff, author of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House"the best-selling book in America right now and a continuing media obsessionappeared on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" Monday night, and the encounter seemed to leave Colbert vaguely unnerved.The biggest (uncomfortable)... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Good Immigrant's editor plans new journal and agency for writers of colour

Nikesh Shukla and literary agent Julia Kingsford have launched Kickstarter appeal to fund The Good Journal, with further plans for an affiliated agencyAfter selling more than 50,000 copies and being named the British public’s favourite book of 2016, the success of anthology The Good Immigrant... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2017-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Essex Serpent adds top British Book Award to prize haul

Sarah Perry crowns a much-garlanded year for her gothic romp, honoured alongside authors including Kiran Millwood Hargrave and JK RowlingTwo word-of-mouth bookselling success stories – Sarah Perry’s novel The Essex Serpent and Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s young adult book The Girl of Ink and Stars... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2017-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Clemson-Alabama Thriller Fails to Rewrite Ratings Record Books

It was perhaps the most riveting college football title game since the fabled USC-Texas tilt in the 2006 Rose Bowl, and yet Monday night's bruising Clemson-Alabama thriller failed to make a dent in the record books.Clemson's last-second (literally) come-from-behind victory over the Crimson Tide... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2017-01-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Good Immigrant crowned Britain's favourite book of 2016

The Good Immigrant has been voted as the British public’s favourite book of 2016 at the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Boys' basketball: Crespi is 21-1 after rout of St. Francis

Encino Crespi improved to 21-1 overall and 7-0 in the Mission League after a 69-32 road victory over St. Francis on Monday night. Mitch Mykhaylov scored 16 points for the Celts, who face Harvard-Westlake on Wednesday. In the Western League, Fairfax defeated Palisades, 95-54. Babacar Thiombane had... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Boys' basketball: Fairfax holds off Birmingham, 65-62

Showing the parity in City Section basketball among the top teams, Fairfax (13-1) struggled to a 65-62 victory over Birmingham in an opening game of the Huntington Park tournament on Monday night. Donald Gipson led the Lions with 17 points. Jamal Hartwell made some clutch free throws. Birmingham... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A high school senior fights for her dreams: 'We must be greater than what we suffer'

Miriam Antonio left her Koreatown apartment just past 6:30 Friday morning and walked in darkness to her bus stop on Wilshire Boulevard. It's a two-bus journey to Fairfax High School, where Antonio is an 18-year-old senior with a dream that seems tantalizingly within reach. "I live with my Mom and... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2015-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Rebekah Brooks says it ‘is a privilege’ to be back at News UK

Chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s UK publishing business acknowledges Sun colleagues are still facing trial over alleged corrupt payments for storiesRebekah Brooks has described how good she feels to be back running Rupert Murdoch’s British publishing operation on her first day after being... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-09-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Return of Rebekah Brooks is 'two fingers up to British public' – shadow minister

Chris Bryant, shadow culture secretary, condemns apparent reappointment of Brooks as News UK chief a year after she was cleared of phone-hacking chargesThe return of Rebekah Brooks to run Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper operation has been described as “two fingers up to the British public” by the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


No men allowed: publisher accepts novelist's 'year of women' challenge

Small press And Other Stories will produce no books by men in 2018 in answer to Kamila Shamsie’s call for direct action to beat gender bias in publishingSmall press And Other Stories has answered author Kamila Shamsie’s provocative call for a year of publishing women to redress “gender bias” in... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Quercus signs Lindy West

Quercus has acquired a book by Guardian columnist and GQ culture writer Lindy West. Shrill will be a “laugh-out-loud portrayal of what it means to become self-aware the hard way, in a popular culture that is hostile to women (especially fat women) and doesn't think women (especially feminists)... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Hawks, butterflies, coasts and footpaths: how nature writing turned to literary gold

Books about the natural world are now huge sellers, tapping into a new appreciation for the countryside and scepticism about material wealthBondage is so last year. Publishers who spent much of the past year in search of the next Fifty Shades of Grey are now seeking to exploit another literary... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


How Amazon's bid to bury Hachette has backfired

Amazon's suggestion that the ebook and paperback revolutions are comparable has sparked scorn, satire and indigationWhen Amazon published their rather extraordinary "Message from the Amazon Books Team" at readersunited.com last week, they got a few things right and a few things wrong. Alongside... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Swordfish hands Brooker two-book deal

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 10:45 Orion Books imprint Swordfish has acquired two books by Guardian columnist and TV presenter Charlie Brooker, signing the titles through Jo Unwin at Conville & Walsh. Publisher Rowland White bought world rights in all... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this