'Then Barbara Met Alan': All you need to know about the Disability Discrimination Act drama

BBC Two tells a hugely important story tonight in Then Barbara Met Alan, a film based on the real events of the disability rights campaign in the 90s.

The Disability Discrimination Act didn't come into effect until as recently as 1995, and this film features the group of campaigners who fought for their hard-won rights, against the backdrop of Barbara and Alan's own love story.

Here's all you need to know about Then Barbara Met Alan.

When is Then Barbara Met Alan on TV?

The one-off film airs tonight (Monday) at 9pm on BBC Two and will be available to watch on iPlayer, too.

What is the drama about?

The true story follows disability rights campaigners Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth who fell in love and set up Direct Action Network (DAN) to put into law real changes that could improve their lives.

Barbara, Alan and their fellow campaigners were battling against the idea of disabled people needing pity and charity, and urging politicians to bring in anti-discrimination laws as well as rules to make buildings accessible to everyone, as many still weren't in the 90s.

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They began by targeting the regular ITV Telethon where celebrities asked the public to donate to charity by framing disabled people as deserving of pity and successfully managed to get it shut down by showing what it really meant to live with a disability.

But DAN's work didn't end there - comedian Barbara and singer-songwriter Alan lead protests including handcuffing themselves to buses, trains, the Houses of Parliament, even shutting down Westminster Bridge in the battle for rights which they won, even with their new baby in tow.

Although the 1995 act is still far from perfect today, it was a seminal moment in having disability rights recognised in law.

Who stars in Then Barbara Met Alan?

Barbara is played by Years and Years star Ruth Madeley, and Alan is played by Arthur Hughes (Help), who both said they were nervous about playing real people whose actions had such huge effects on their own lives.

The film employed cast and crew with disabilities themselves and Madeley talked about the emotional experience of not feeling like the only person with a disability on set.

She said: "I actually found it really emotional. Sometimes when you're on set working, you're often the only disabled person there and you kind of just get on with it without giving it much thought.

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"But on this job, to be put in an environment where you're surrounded by so many people with an array of different disabilities, lots of different access requirements and needs, it was something else."

She added: "I remember one day on set I was looking around and just wanted to burst out crying. It was an incredible feeling but I remember thinking, this shouldn't be the first time I’m feeling like this on set. Where have all these people been?!

"I cannot wait to go my next job where I feel like that again. It shouldn’t have been a big deal, but it really was. It felt like a really big shift for disabled creatives."

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Madeley said of meeting Barbara: "Acting aside, to sit down and have a drink with her, disabled woman to disabled woman, was a real honour. Knowing that she was fighting for a law that would affect my entire life was so humbling and quite emotional."

Hughes was also impressed by the experience of making the film: "I don't think I’ve ever been around so many disabled people in one place before, and I’d never really thought about that.

"Sometimes you don't know what a safe space is until you're in one. I never felt self-conscious, I felt at ease, and with the story we were telling I felt more connected to my disability than ever before.

"The whole process was a transformational period in recognising, accepting and truly loving myself as a disabled person."

What is Liz Carr's role in the film?

Silent Witness star Liz Carr has a very poignant role in the film as she plays her younger self, having really been a part of Barbara and Alan's campaign in the 90s.

Carr said: "I’ve been involved with DAN since 1992. I was 20 at the time. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as powerful as on some of those protests - non-violent direct action is a way of making change happen, of feeling proactive, in feeling empowered and in changing the narrative as well as the image of what disability actually means.

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"Disabled people are not inevitably passive and tragic recipients of charity and care - we can be flawed, funny, fierce, political, passionate."

She continued: "Wheeling down Whitehall, confronting Ken Clarke at his inaccessible surgery with a wheelbarrow, concrete and a challenge to ‘build a ramp’, handcuffed to buses, refusing to move, being arrested, sitting in a police cell, going to court, being hugely visible and saying to the world ‘we are members of the public so why is public transport not accessible to us?’

"To this day, I remain committed to DAN’s aims and to using direct action as part of a movement’s attempts for recognition and rights."

Then Barbara Met Alan airs tonight (Monday) at 9pm on BBC Two.

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