Martine Monksfield tells us about her experience on ITV show Tipping Point! (BSL)

I spent the majority of my one year maternity leave in a tight schedule around my twin’s routine and a strict expressing milk routine that consisted of me needing to pump milk into bottles for the twins every 3-6 hours round the clock.

Because of that very fixed routine and schedule with the support of my in-laws who were with me daily helping with the twins; we spent a lot of time watching Lingo, Tipping Point and then The Chase on the dot daily.

When the time was nearing to return to work in June 2022, I decided on whim in March 2022 to apply to Tipping Point. This consisted of completing an application form online, and then a phone call interview via a BSL interpreter.

During the phone calls I was asked questions about myself, what I do for work, what my lifestyle is like and why I applied to Tipping Point. I said that I thought no deaf person had been on it before, and it would be nice to be the first – play the deaf card where possible eh!

When we did some trial questions over the phone akin to Tipping Point it was an absolute disaster doing it via a BSL interpreter. This was no fault of the BSL interpreter, but it was because there was no preparation for the BSL interpreter to see the questions in advance to ensure translation was accurate.

There was a question about a part of the body and it got lost in translation because in BSL we would point to the body but the BSL interpreter fingerspelled the parts of the body which meant I had double the work to do to work out the question, and of course, that took up extra time.

The interviewer and I agreed with my view that it would be better for me to have live captions for the questions that Ben Shepherd (the presenter) asked, but I stressed I would also need a BSL interpreter for the ‘chat’ between all of this, and also to know what answers the contestants give.

I was so used to reading the questions in written English having watched Tipping Point for so long, so to get the questions in BSL was a bit of a mind-throw for me. I wanted full inclusion. I just wasn’t sure how they could make it work on their end. I figured, given the success of Rose Ayling-Ellis on Strictly Come Dancing, and the subsequent increase in the culture of diversity and inclusion in TV, they’d be more willing to make it work these days than pre-Rose on Strictly.

I was right, they were incredibly keen to have me on Tipping Point so I was scheduled to film on a date in June 2022 – the exact week before I went back to work. I thought the timing was great as the twins would turn 1 just after I returned to work. I travelled in the night before, filmed in the morning, then headed home in the afternoon. Overall it was a nice wee break away from the fixed routine and scheduled life I led for the last year.

Calum was my main point of contact for Tipping Point, interviewing me and keeping me updated on the filming dates. I was delighted to meet him in person on the day we filmed to put a face to all those phone calls and emails. I was particularly impressed he actually read the application form and saw I stated I was ‘Deaf’ so he emailed me to ask what adjustments I needed in order to have a phone call. Most people wouldn’t see that and just try to call me!

The burning question I know most people have – “was Ben as nice in real life as he appears on telly?!” I can confirm he was. In fact, I was really quite impressed with how ‘nonchalant’ he was about my deafness and took it in his stride.

We needed a rehearsal before the actual quiz show to check the access arrangements were going to work; a TV above Ben’s head with the live subtitles (and readers, the live subtitles were BANG ON time, no delay like we would expect as if we’re watching the news!) and the BSL interpreter Liam next to him.

Calum and another researcher stood next to me to pretend to be the other contestants and it transpired Liam wouldn’t sign for their parts so I clarified that this needed to be signed regardless even if he wasn’t sure how to spell some of the answers – just try! Once that rehearsal was done we were good to do it properly.

I certainly think if you’re keen to apply to gameshows, you should absolutely go for it! There is certainly something in the air about seeing more deaf people on TV – lately with Tasha on The Great British Bake Off too so it seems those working behind the scenes in TV are much more aware of how to make it accessible to deaf people and more importantly, are willing to work with you in making it work for you.

For example, if I needed voiceover, I am confident that they would have recruited another BSL interpreter to be my voiceover and Liam to relay the chat / what other contestants were saying.

Of course, it would be nice if I could end the article saying I won £10,000 but it definitely wasn’t my day. Hopefully I made up for it by making people laugh a bit watching me!

The actual game itself flew by very quickly, and of course, if you have seen it by now – I think I made a mistake not taking the 2nd go after getting an answer right, and passing it to the eventual winner, Tom! The machine loved him on the day.

If you want to see the episode you’ll have to be quick before it disappears off ITV X; https://www.itv.com/watch/tipping-point/2a1875/2a1875a1453