‘Able-bodied most offended’ by wheelchair sketch show

ANDY HAMILTON, a comedy screenwriter, has revealed that a pilot for a sketch show written and performed by disabled people only offended ablebodied audience members.

Mr Hamilton, who has written for The Two Ronnies, Outnumbered, Not the Nine O’Clock News, Alas Smith and Jones, The Armstrong and Miller Show, and co-created Drop the Dead Donkey, said people want to be outraged “usually on someone else’s behalf ”.

Speaking on the Always Be Comedy podcast, he recalled a pilot written for the BBC by producer Ash Atalla, who created The Office.

“Ash contracted polio when he was a boy and so he uses a wheelchair,” Mr Hamilton said. “He made a pilot for the

‘Jokes are supposed to be a sort of a relief valve. So a lot of it is about laughing in the face of life’

BBC written and performed by disabled people with the working title of ‘Goodness, Gracious, Wheelchair’.”

Atalla asked him if he would mediate a discussion forum for the 25-minute sketch programme. After it aired, the audience was asked to raise their hands if they were offended by anything they had seen in the show. “About 30 hands went up out of about 200, but they weren’t disabled people. They were able-bodied people,” he said.

Mr Hamilton added: “I’ve a long-term concern, which is so much of humour, so many classic jokes, so much of what we joke about are very serious topics, like death, marriage, relationships failing, illness. Part of it is that jokes are sort of a relief valve. So a lot of it is about laughing in the face of life.”

He said: “Say you were telling a deathbed joke – you get a whiff of this with some broadcasters where they’ll go ‘there’ll be a lot of people out there with grief issues, we better put a helpline on at the end’.”