Donna Williams: ‘Finally, A Dream Come True’ – My BSL poem about the Deaf character in Dr Who

Posted on February 25, 2016 by



Sign language poet Donna Williams is a big Dr Who fan, and she’s now created a video about the recent inclusion of a Deaf character, Cass, who was played by actor Sophie Stone. The poem was filmed and edited by Martin Haswell.

Here’s it is:

Donna says:

I’ve loved Dr Who ever since I first saw it, though I have no idea how old I was… It must have been reruns back in 80’s and I have vague memories of Jon Pertwee, Sarah Jane Smith, Tom Baker, Silurians (I think they were Silurians) and Autons. And of being totally hooked! It was so different. When I found out it was coming back I was thrilled and as it’s got bigger and bigger, I’ve cheered it all the way.
The poem – without giving too much away – was inspired by all the creatures and individuals the doctor has met over the years. He’s met just about everyone, human and alien, famous and infamous, disabled and enhanced, and yet… where were the deaf? And now, finally, in the form of ass-kicking sassy Cassy, my dream’s come true! This is my tribute 🙂
I’ve been doing poetry in both English and BSL for a while, for me the challenge is for a poem to be accessible, even beautiful in both languages. Here, the poem was written in English and I’ve done my best to translate this into BSL with Martin (my incredibly talented director and editor) adding the English subtitles later with a soundtrack. This way, we hope the poem can be enjoyed by anyone and hopefully everyone!
Long live Doctor Who!

Donna Williams is a Contributing Editor for Limping Chicken. She is a Deaf writer and blogger living in Bristol and studying part-time in Cardiff. As well as being a postgrad student, she’s a BSL poet, freelance writer, NDCS Deaf Role Model presenter, and occasional performer. She tweets as@DeafFirefly

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