Doctor Who showrunner, Russell T Davies, has revealed that Rose Ayling-Ellis’ character, Aliss, in The Well wasn’t originally written to be deaf, but as soon as the EastEnders actress came on board, her input added a lot to the script.
He said:
“Aliss wasn’t written as a deaf character. But then Rose’s name came up, and she’s acted for long time on British television, and I instantly said yes. Because she’s just wonderful… It was a delight to work with Rose. As I talked with her, we put things into the script I never would have thought of. She modified things, and we modified things…”
He also recalls that she was particularly pleased with him adding in the section where the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) acknowledges that people don’t always trust people who are signing.
This is something of a surprise, given how well the script integrated that aspect of her character, but Davies is right — Ayling-Ellis is excellent (I thought at one point that she’d be the next companion), so we were lucky to have her in The Well.
I went to a trilingual youth performance over the weekend — English, Welsh, and BSL — and it really is inspiring to see young people approach sign language and add it to stage shows so brilliantly. I learned the alphabet in BSL, but I’d love to learn more; it’d be great if there were free online courses if anyone knows of any…?
