‘We Might Regret This’: Producers Say BBC Show Starring & Written By Disabled Performer Can Reach “Very Top Table Of Creativity”

Max Goldbart
·5 min read
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The exec producer behind BBC comedy-drama We Might Regret This has said his ambition was for a show starring and written by a disabled performer to be “at the very top table of creativity.”

The Office and People Just Do Nothing producer Ash Atalla, whose Roughcut TV outfit is making We Might Regret This in association with Village Roadshow Television, said there has been a tendency for British broadcasters to “use the dry slopes of smaller budget shows or ancillary channels as training progams” when it comes to projects led by disabled people.

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Penned by Kyla Harris and Lee Getty, We Might Regret This, on the other hand, is being positioned as a bigger-budget primetime offering for the UK’s national broadcaster, which its backers feel could be a potential awards winner.

“There was always an ambition to make a show that stars a disabled performer sat at the very top table of creativity,” said Atalla. “We wanted to pack a writers room with the very best you can get, thinking about how we could make a BBC or HBO version of the show, giving the subject matter the ‘Rolls Royce treatment’.”

Atalla has been making British TV shows for decades but on We Might Regret This he “felt a particular responsibility for the subject matter,” he said. “It’s no secret that I’m in a wheelchair and it’s an area that has been of interest for a while. Thematically I wondered why the world hadn’t made a show like this and why there weren’t more examples of it.”

Revealed by Deadline several months ago, We Might Regret This stars co-writer Harris as Freya, who moves to London to live with Abe, played by Killing Eve star Darren Boyd. Abe thinks he’s an old dog that can learn new tricks but Freya requires constant PAs who are always present and, after failing to find the right person for this intimate role, she invites chaotic and impulsive best friend Jo (Elena Saurel) to take the job.

“Groundbreaking TV”

Jon Petrie, the BBC’s Comedy Director, told Deadline he had been following the project for a number of years.

“The aspirational side of the story really appeals,” said Petrie. “The BBC is well known for making groundbreaking TV and this feels groundbreaking to me.”

While We Might Regret This is helmed by a disabled person, Petrie added that the “challenges she faces are baked into the show but it is not solely about those challenges, which was important to us.”

He cited a number of BBC shows from disabled and neurodivergent creatives in recent years including Tim Renkow’s Jerk (also produced by Roughcut), Ashley Storrie’s Dinosaur and David Tennant-starrer There She Goes, coming a few days after Project Diamond data found that the proportion of disabled writers and directors on UK TV shows has doubled over the past five years while still sitting well below national average.

Village Roadshow Television EVP Alix Jaffe hailed the “specific voice and unique perspective” of We Might Regret This, coming as Village Roadshow looks to jump aboard more international projects.

“I feel like when I’ve seen disability portrayed on TV it’s either heroic or tragic or [the disabled person] is playing a funny sidekick rather than being front and center,” she said. “But in We Might Regret This we see the circumstances of [Kyla Harris’] life and to see that in a relatable, everyday way is refreshing.”

UK comedy commissioners tend to take riskier swings than their U.S. counterparts, added Jaffe. “This isn’t a niche show, it’s relatable to anyone, but I do think the UK in comedy takes more risks and [the U.S.] tends to follow or remake, so it’s exciting to be the ones trying something different.”

While drawing on Harris’ experiences, the show is fictionalized, but Atalla said he was always keen for the co-writer to play the lead.

“We always hoped that she would be able to play it but I think I come back to having the highest of standards,” he added. “Had she been unable to act the show would have started and stopped in that moment. As it turns out she was brilliant and we were really happy for her to play the role.”

Production was, however, challenged by the difficulties of making TV when multiple cast and crew members are in wheelchairs. Atalla estimated this probably increased the budget by around 15% to 20% as “everything about the process doesn’t fit with being immobile, and takes lots of planning and extra funds.” “If Tom Cruise were to break his leg you’d really struggle to make a show with him,” he added.

Atalla praised the work of the likes of Help writer Jack Thorne in looking to improve facilities for disabled people around the country but stressed that the situation “started from zero” and there is much more work to do.

We Might Regret This marks a rare co-production between a UK and U.S. producer and Petrie said the decision has benefitted both the “creative thinking” behind the show and also its budget, with more of this ilk in the pipeline.

U.S. players have shown “lots of interest” already, according to Jaffe, and Village Roadshow Television is launching sales at this week’s Content London.

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