Kirkmoore: 'Disabled people shouldn't have to laugh at ourselves to be funny'

When actor Keron Day first read through the script for?Kirkmoore, a BBC Three comedy single set in a fictional college for disabled students, he was in hysterics. He was also excited. Really excited.

“When you get auditions as a disabled actor, there are some parts where you think, ‘Oh that's not that's not good representation, that’s an archetype rather than a character,'” he says.

“But when I read David, I thought: ‘Oh my God, this is so well-written. I really, really hope I get the part.’”

The 22-year-old plays David, a precocious know-it-all with aspirations to become the first disabled prime minister.

Featuring an all-disabled cast, the comedy focuses on David, serial dater Chloe (played by Francesca Mills), and sexually frustrated Jack (Chris Slater).

We see their adolescent mishaps, like trying - and failing - to date, getting into a nightclub, and experimenting with alcohol, all while preparing for their A-levels.

Kirkmoore is loosely based on writer Andrew Bogle’s experiences of studying in a residential college for disabled students.

“All of the characters have a bit of me in them,” he says. “But once the ideas came, they began to take on their own character.”

Universal teenage experience

As British sitcoms like The Inbetweeners and?Bad Education?have proved, school and college years are ripe for comedy.

Kirkmoore’s characters take every chance possible to ridicule one another, meaning the humour is sweary, rude and unapologetically vulgar. For example, just minutes into the comedy, two of the school staff march down a corridor to deal with an incident: a student is watching porn on the school computer.

Andrew says: “What I wanted to do is make disabled people the target of the comedy, but it’s not really about their disability, it’s because of the characters.”

Keron is so grateful for Bogle’s approach to humour, he says. “What Kirkmoore avoids doing is the kind of self-deprecating humour, which I think has a time and a place, but disabled people shouldn't have to laugh at ourselves to be allowed to be funny.”

The actor adds that the characters in Kirkmoore are all engaging in everyday, teenage experiences. “I've never seen disabled people do [that] on screen before.”

The characters are going on bad dates, working extremely hard to impress girls and endlessly throwing up after a few too many drinks.

Andrew adds: “The thing to remember is that disabled teenagers have the same hang-ups, the same ambitions in getting a relationship, or going to a nightclub and pulling someone.

“And that universal experience is something I wanted to reflect.”

Authentic representation

Having diversity throughout the show’s process has shown in the end result, says Keron.

“I think the reason why the project went so well is because we have a disabled director, writer, cast,” the actor adds. “It’s all authentic.”

At one point, he and a co-star were both struck by how many other disabled people were working alongside them, he says.

It’s an experience neither of them had ever had before. “We had to stop ourselves thinking about it too much, otherwise we’d be an emotional wreck.”

A?2021 report?found that 3.5% of TV series regular characters were disabled in 2020, despite 15% of?the global population?having a disability.

“I do a lot of work with disability representation, and one thing I say is: diversity without disability is not diversity,” says Keron. Ignoring the largest minority group is a failure of the media, he adds.

“What I hope Kirkmoore shows is that you don't have to have one token disabled person, just to tick a box,” he says. “You can have a fully disabled cast and it works.

“I really hope that comes through.”