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Flight Time
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JULY 2019
Interview
Do you think your win had an effect on the
way that disability is viewed by the general
public? How has your life changed since
that win?
One of the best things to happen since
I won is that people are engaging with
me a lot more than they would have in
the past. For the first time, they seem
comfortable talking to a disabled person.
I’m used to being stared at for negative
reasons, so it’s nice to be stared at for
positive reasons for a change.
Tell us about the BBC Radio 4 sitcom you
wrote,
Ability
. How did that come about?
Ability
is a sitcom about a disabled
bloke who can’t speak, who sometimes
uses his disability to his advantage,
and can be a bit of a dick at times.
So obviously it’s purely fictional! He
shares a flat with his best mate Jess
(who he also fancies) and he has a very
dodgy carer called Bob. Together they
get up to quite a lot of mischief. In the
first series, they decided to become
drug dealers just to see if they could
get away with it and set up a robot sex
line to make a bit of money from lonely
old men. You can expect more of this
sort of thing in the second series, too.
I’d had the idea for quite a while in my
head but I never got around to doing
anything about it. It was only when
I won the BBC New Comedy Award
in 2014 that the project finally got
moving. This was because part of my
prize was the chance to write a pilot for
Radio 4. Thankfully, the BBC enjoyed
the pilot enough to commission it for a
series. It’s just grown from there.
What inspired it?
Quite a lot of it is based on my real-life
experiences. For example, the character
of Bob is based on a dodgy carer that I
once had. One time he turned up in the
morning to help me get dressed but he
was clearly still drunk from the night
before. He ended up falling asleep on my
living-room floor!
Any more similar projects planned?
Hopefully everyone will love this series
of
Ability
so much that Radio 4 will
commission more. I’d definitely like to
write some more!
You’re currently on tour – how’s it going?
I think the best thing about being on
tour is getting to see some really lovely
places that maybe I wouldn’t have ever
visited otherwise, and then getting to
meet people from all different walks of
life. I’ve got a lot of fans based all over the
place, so it’s nice to be able to get to meet
them. They’ve supported me a lot, so it’s
nice to give them something back. One
of the worst things is definitely being
away from home. I quite like my home
comforts such as my bed and being able
to sit in my pants and watch television all
day. So I miss that when I’m away.
What’s next for you?
My first book was out in May. It’s
called
I’m Only In It For The Parking
. It’s
always been a dream of mine to write a
book, so I’m delighted to have had the
opportunity to do it. It’s basically all
about the stupid questions people ask
me because I’m disabled. My favourites
in the book are “Have you ever tried to
talk just to see what would happen?”
And “Are you as clever as Stephen
Hawking?” Spoiler alert, I’m not!
“For the first
time they seem
comfortable
talking to a
disabled person.
I’m used to being
stared at for
negative reasons,
so it’s nice to
be stared at for
positive reasons
for a change.”