A winning speech that was a sign of the times
The unexpected high point of this year’s otherwise subdued Oscars was the presence of Rachel Shenton, the actress and screenwriter whose film The Silent Child won the award for Best Live Short.
Shenton, who is from Stokeon-trent and used to be in Hollyoaks, signed her speech as a way of honouring the film’s six-year-old star, Maisie Sly, who, along with her siblings and parents, is deaf. Shenton made the film to raise awareness of the millions of children who live in a silent world.
This was also the week that comedian Rob Delaney spoke about his late son Henry’s love of Singing Hands, a duo who use the language programme Makaton to sign songs. Twoyear-old Henry died earlier this year of a brain tumour.
Delaney tweeted: “He needed a tracheostomy, making speech impossible. He was cognitively and emotionally smarter than me, though, and Makaton let us communicate.”
Delaney also praised Justin Fletcher, who brought Makaton to mainstream television with his Cbeebies character Mr Tumble. To my shame, Mad World, my podcast series for the Telegraph, has until now not been terribly inclusive of the deaf community. We have rectified that, and added transcripts of all the interviews to the website (bryonysmad world.telegraph. co.uk). We hope you enjoy them.