A positive sign
Writer William Mager hopes Reunion, the first bilingual drama using sign language, makes the deaf community feel seen
BBC
- Gareth McLean
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Reunion is a first, in so many ways. It’s the first drama series I’ve written, the first primetime TV drama to be created by a deaf person, and the first to have a substantial number of deaf people working behind the camera. It’s not the first TV show to feature a deaf character – we’ve seen many, from Silent Witness to EastEnders, from Waterloo Road to Casualty, not to mention Soundproof (2006) and The Silence (2010), starring Joseph Mawle and Genevieve Barr respectively. But with such a huge ensemble cast of talented actors, Reunion feels like a huge step forward for deaf portrayal.
The seed of Reunion was planted growing up as a deaf kid in Sheffield in the early 1980s, when TV wasn’t accessible to me – Teletext subtitles were still in their infancy, so I’d watch Charlie Chaplin silents like Modern Times and City Lights, and my parents would rent videos from the movie shop and pause them to explain what was going on. I’ll never forget when we rented Raiders of the Lost Ark and my stepdad paused it, turning to me with a solemn expression on his face to tell me: “They’re looking for the Ark of the Covenant…” I couldn’t get him to press play fast enough.
Reunion writer William Mager. Peter Ives Photography
I grew up idolising Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen. The only deaf role model I had back then was Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God. I think that was the start of my subconsciously wanting to see myself on TV, and to be seen.
As well as watching films, I also loved to read and write. Written English was my first language – easier than speaking and lip-reading, which didn’t come naturally, and I wouldn’t learn sign language until much later in life – so I wrote, a lot. I was the kid the other people in class would ask for the correct spellings of words. It makes sense that I’d become a screenwriter, eventually.
I did my MA in Writing for Film and Television at the University of Sheffield, but on graduating I found myself in a world where there were still only four TV channels, no streamers and very limited opportunities for scriptwriters. I worked for the BBC as a new media trainee instead, making short films and dramas in my spare time with funding from the UK Film Council and the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust (now known as Lumo TV). I had a long 20-year career in factual television.
As a deaf kid, TV wasn't accessible to me
William Mager
But push came to shove a few years ago and I decided I wanted to be a writer full time. Reunion was the first TV script I wrote – and I wrote it for myself, no one else. Then I started sending the script out. It found its way to Sheffield-based Warp Films, who optioned it, and then the BBC greenlit it.
I’d describe Reunion as a Yorkshire-set western in the vein of High Plains Drifter or Dead Man’s Shoes (also made by Warp Films), crossed with those classic 70s movies I grew up loving, like The Getaway, Get Carter and Point Blank – a mysterious stranger with a gun on a mission… But in Reunion, those familiar thriller tropes gradually give way to something more meaningful – a deaf man trying to find his way home, to reconnect with his hearing daughter while trying to come to terms with the terrible crime he’s committed against another member of the deaf community.
While I was working on the scripts, I was involved with the casting. We have a golden generation of deaf actors who’ve worked consistently in film, TV and theatre for the last 20 years or so, and I wanted to use as many of them as possible. We ended up with some of the best.
Rose Ayling-Ellis as Miri in Reunion. BBC
Daniel Brennan is played by Matthew Gurney – an actor who’s worked consistently since the early 2000s, appearing in Louis Neethling’s Switch, as well as several shorts by Bim Ajadi, myself and others. His lived experience as a deaf person made him a perfect fit for the role. The first day on set, when I saw his face on the monitor, I realised deaf viewers finally have their own Marlon Brando, crossed with Jason Statham.
Matty’s daughter Carly is played by Lara Peake, who is hearing and had no prior experience of the deaf community, but threw herself into learning BSL with the kind of commitment and fearlessness that only the best kind of actors have, aided by the lovely Duffy, our BSL coach and on-set monitor.
We also have Rose Ayling-Ellis, a true star. Her work on EastEnders, winning Strictly and then delivering an alternative MacTaggart Lecture about her experiences in TV opened the door for shows like Reunion and her star vehicle, ITV’s Code of Silence due later this year. We were so lucky to have her. Then we have Anne-Marie Duff and Eddie Marsan, both absolute powerhouses who elevate the whole show, by being brilliant and making it look effortless.
In Matty, deaf viewers have their own Marlon Brando
Beyond the big five of Matty, Lara, Rose, Eddie and Anne-Marie, we have so many incredible actors, deaf and hearing: Joe Sims, who was instrumental in encouraging me to write Reunion and getting the script into the hands of the right people; Stephen Collins, who’s worked with Denis Villeneuve on Dune: Part One; Sophie Stone, a Rada-educated Rolls-Royce of a deaf actor; Ace Mahbaz, Rinkoo Barpaga, Julian Peedle-Calloo and so many more. We’ve also got about 200 deaf extras across episode one and two!
Reunion isn’t about not being able to hear. It is about what it’s like to be deaf and survive institutions – whether it’s school, the workplace, medical settings… or at the most extreme end of the spectrum, prison. But it’s also about big universal things that anyone can identify with, deaf or hearing – grief, guilt, that ongoing journey to make sense of your own life.
My hope is that hearing viewers will embrace those silent scenes where our characters converse in British Sign Language (BSL), and it starts a national conversation about what we can do to make life a bit easier for deaf people – in education, in the workplace, in healthcare. Maybe they’ll even be inspired to search for local sign language classes and take their first tentative steps into a new world.
As for deaf viewers – this is a show for you. I hope that when you watch it, you’ll be able to say: “That’s me. I’m represented on that screen, and I know who those characters are.”
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Reunion is also for that deaf boy who grew up in Sheffield, hopping between those four channels, trying to find something to watch. I know he’d have loved it.
Authors
Gareth McLean
Gareth McLean has been writing about television for nearly 30 years. As a critic, he's reviewed thousands of programmes. As a feature writer, he's interviewed hundreds of people, from Liza Minnelli to Jimmy Savile. He has also written for TV.
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