Free Speech?

Three weeks after Big Brother has ended, there remains a question on my mind. Will Pete be given the chance to follow his fellow winners Craig, Brian, Kate, Cameron and Chantelle in being a TV presenter? Even losers such as Jade, Jon Tickle and, of course, Nikki have been given their own shows, while Glyn and Imogen are reported to be currently in negotiations with the Welsh-language channel S4C.

I haven't written anything so far about the presence of a disabled contestant on the show. Frankly, it was about time and there was not much more to be said than that. However, the way the producers went about rectifying their previous omission speaks volumes about the problems that Pete may have in obtaining work on television in the future. The rumour is that only wheelchair users and people with Tourette's syndrome were interviewed for this token role, with no effort made to make the house accessible for anyone with another impairment. As usual, the production team must always remain in control, even on a programme as seemingly anarchic as Big Brother.

I suspect that this control-freakery will make it near impossible for Pete or any person with Tourette's syndrome, a stutter, cerebral palsy, or any sort of impaired speech, to have a career in front of the camera. Don't get me wrong, the problem is not that he intermittently says the word 'wankers' but that he does not do so on cue. I can easily imagine a script editor liberally scattering his lines with the expletive only to be disappointed that he can neither produce the tic voluntarily nor suppress it at other times. There is a strange irony in the fact that reality shows are emerging at a time in which almost everything else on television is becoming more and more scripted and less spontaneous, a situation highly unfavourable for someone like Pete.

There is a lot of talk about the need for more disabled people on television, but this demand is usually interpreted to mean wheelchair users, and the odd person who is blind or deaf. The war by the media against regional accents has been lost following the triumphal rise of Ant and Dec and Adrian Chiles. We need to hope that the war against impaired speech will soon be lost as well. I fear not.