Shunned and hidden away... Progress
Cerrie Burnell examines how society became prejudiced towards the disabled…
NEW FACTUAL
Silenced: The Hidden Story of Disabled Britain
Tuesday, 9pm BBC2
When presenter and actor Cerrie Burnell got her big break on Cbeebies, it wasn’t her professionalism or boundless energy that made headlines. It was the fact she’d been born without the lower part of her right arm and some viewers complained her appearance was ‘scaring’ children.
‘One father said he wouldn’t allow his daughter to watch the show because he thought she’d have nightmares,’ recalls Cerrie.
For this BBC2 documentary, Cerrie wants to discover where such attitudes towards disabled people came from and why they still persist. She looks back at the Victorian workhouses crammed with disabled people, which later led to institutions designed to segregate those with disabilities to stop them reproducing.
‘It’s just horrific,’ explains Cerrie. ‘The mentality was that if you were disabled, you were
a mistake, don’t have a place in this world, and it would have been better if you didn’t exist.’
Cerrie hears shocking tales of disabled people the medical world tried to ’fix’, including Ann, who, at four, had her legs broken and reset several times because she had a joint disease, and by nine was strapped into a full-body plaster cast.
However, she also meets pioneers who changed the lives of disabled people such as Alia, who brought London to a standstill with her fight for disability access on public transport.
‘After more than 100 years, we’re still not there yet,’ says Cerrie. ‘We look at the rights that have been won and remain vigilant that they are not taken away.’