In this 7 minute preview clip made by the BBC’s See Hear programme (and shown at the weekend as part of the See Hear Sign Language Festival), you can go behind the scenes and watch Deaf actress Sophie Stone performs recording an upcoming episode of Doctor Who.
You can also read a Limping Chicken interview with Sophie, by clicking here.
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Cathy
October 5, 2015
Iam not a fan of Dr Who, but I did catch Sophie in this mainstream role. Its fantastic to see a deaf person in such a high profile acting role.
As Iam not keen on the programme I didn’t bother watching the whole episode, but the few minutes I saw showed me how problematic BSL is to actually use in the mainstream!
Naturally, hearing viewers will not have a clue that Sophie is actually using SSE not BSL. Of course, if they can sign themselves they will spot it!
This demonstrates how isolated Deaf people are who are strong BSL users and furthermore it proves that BSL itself cannot be used in mainstream acting.
I noticed the same parabol with See Hear’s “soap” years ago, that the late Hal Draper starred in. They were not using BSL but SSE!
This does not bode well when many people have been clamouring for BSL teaching in schools and a BSL Act. The act would strengthen Deaf people’s rights, of course, to their own language and open up more of an accessible life, but it is clearly the case that acting and BSL do not gel.
It may or may not be apparent to many in the Deaf community, that such acting roles use SSE and not BSL and that is because they have to speak aswell and BSL does not use speech!
The role in Dr Who also requires a Deaf person who can lipread, this narrows down the role, considerably. So only certain Deaf actors could be chosen. Many Deaf cannot lipread so the chance of a strong BSL actor is gone.
I congratulate Sophie, she is most fortunate indeed, but I have yet to see a Deaf actor actually using BSL in mainstream acting roles, but I think I already know the answer: there will never be one because BSL is unique for Deaf people only and for those who do not have lipreading skills!
Donna Williams
October 5, 2015
I wish you had seen the entire episode; you would have seen the multi-channel signs that Sophie, Zaqi and Jean St Clair came up with for scientific jargon such as ‘co-ordinates’ etc, the naturalistic communication between Cass and Lunn and ergo the rest of the crew, and Cass going toe to toe with the Doctor in BSL with Lunn providing voiceover. Please, please watch the whole episode as there were many elements of BSL used and you may be surprised.
From a Whovian who loved every minute 🙂
katyjudd2013
October 5, 2015
“BSL …cannot be used in mainstream acting” “acting and BSL do not gel”
I guess it’s not mainstream, but hey, what about BSL Zone’s ‘Small World’? Brilliant, funny and full BSL (plus captions). More episodes coming I believe – thanks cast and crew!