Is Reunion the future of British TV?

Set in Sheffield, Reunion sees Daniel Brennan, played by the excellent Matthew Gurney, a Deaf actor playing a Deaf main character, released from prison after 10 years of inaccessibility and isolation behind bars.

Returning home, he finds that his parents and the Deaf community don’t want anything to do with him. And even his hearing daughter, played by the talented Lara Peake, isn’t exactly thrilled about their reunion.

This four-part thriller follows the unravelling of Brennan’s story, with flashbacks to his incarceration and his life before. There’s an all star-cast, with Anne-Marie Duff as Christine, the determined widow of the murder victim, Eddie Marsan as the new boyfriend with an interesting past and the charismatic Rose Ayling-Ellis as Miri, Christine’s daughter, whose father was murdered 10 years ago.

We’ve waited years for a mainstream drama written by a Deaf writer, and William Mager does not disappoint. The punchy dialogue, meaty characters and dramatic tension are everything you’d want from a thriller, perfectly interwoven with deaf awareness.

As a deaf actor and writer myself, I don’t want to go on about 'the deaf thing'. Why? Because this drama should be enjoyed for the pure entertainment that it brings.

However, as a deaf person and campaigner, I can’t let this milestone in D/deaf representation go unheralded.

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We have never seen a mainstream British drama with a half a D/deaf cast (let alone crew) until now.

Seeing so many talented Deaf actors, like Sophie Stone (as Naomi Brennan), Rinkoo Barpaga (as Vinjay), Julian Peedle-Calloo (as Gardner) and Stephen Collins (as Sean), as well as deaf extras, is mind-blowing for the 18 million people in the UK with some form of hearing loss or deafness (RNID).

In addition, seeing multiple D/deaf actors on screen at once and whole scenes in British Sign Language is a huge moment for the 150,000 people who use BSL as their first language (BDA).

In a recent survey by the Royal National Institute of Deaf People, 90 per cent of respondents who use BSL highlighted that they had experienced negative attitudes or behaviours in the last year. Reunion is a show that could change that.

While viewers will be swept up in the drama, they may, by osmosis, become more deaf aware – and might even learn some BSL. Yes, we know they should teach it in schools; there’s actually a BSL GCSE on the way. But anyone can learn, as Rose Ayling-Ellis's latest documentary Old Hands, New Tricks shows.

I was lucky enough to go behind the scenes for the filming of the show and witnessed first-hand the accessibility on the fully bilingual set. There were interpreters everywhere, rather than one tired individual trying to cover multiple conversations. There was BSL everywhere, lipreading, written signs, and it seemed to work seamlessly.

Executive producer Gwen Gorst explained that the production "had a whisper track, which was one of the interpreters reading out everything that was being signed on screen so that everything worked fluently as a fully bilingual set".

Snellin also learnt BSL for the show, mainly in the pub after shooting, he confessed to me, while all of the hearing actors immersed themselves in BSL too, with Peake and Duff learning the language for filming.

The high calibre of the work they have produced here is a testament to the importance of accessible communication. Could this be the case study for bilingual sets on other filming projects too?

Not only is Reunion a milestone production with a Deaf writer, a strong D/deaf cast and crew, a bilingual set, but it’s also just excellent TV.

Mager says the show was written as "a love letter to [his] hometown", and director Luke Snellin (One Day) definitely got the memo. Sheffield has never looked so gorgeous, with the expansive landscapes contrasting the intimacy of the character relationships.

The stunning locations and nuanced direction are supported by an evocative theme tune by Sheffield’s own Richard Hawley that will leave you wanting more.

Snellin admitted that it was the idea of "something cinematic but that had a deaf character at the front and centre" that first drew him in, and I know this triumph of a show will draw audiences in too.

Reunion is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer. It will also be stripped across Mondays and Tuesdays on BBC One at 9pm.

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