‘We need to celebrate difference’: Rachel Shenton launches deaf video podcast

British actress and Oscar-winner Rachel Shenton has launched a deaf video podcast as a platform where “difference” can be celebrated more.

The “fully accessible” four-part series, called Shaping Tomorrow, lets viewers watch with subtitles on and has translation in British Sign Language (BSL).

The first episode sees designer and entrepreneur Wayne Hemingway talk to deaf architect Christopher Laing, and the second follows make-up artists Caroline Barnes and Nicky Weir, who is deaf, in conversation.

Shenton, whose project The Silent Child won the Academy Award for best live action short film in 2018, told the PA news agency: “There is so much richness in the stories that you hear… when you hear Nicky’s story and all the other brilliant guests that we’ve got on, and actually it’s super relatable.

“And I guess TV, film, podcasts, what we see is what is our reflection of the world, and we need to see that more. We need to celebrate difference more.”

The Hollyoaks and All Creatures Great And Small star, 36, learned to sign after the death of her father, who became deaf after undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, and has since become an advocate for the hearing impaired.

She went on to found Hear Art with Cindy Sasha, who has a deaf family member, and the social enterprise has led to the creation of the deaf-led video podcast created with a 90% deaf production team to amplify the voices of the deaf community.

Shenton said: “The whole point of the podcast and the organisation in general is just to try to put these stories in front of more of a mainstream audience, and really just give this incredible deaf talent, Nicky being one of them, a platform that they can tell their own stories.

“And we go, ‘Oh, wow, they’ve faced barriers, and I face barriers’. And actually, we’ll celebrate the difference and get to know each other, and it’s not that scary.”

She also encouraged people to ask questions about sign language, as getting it wrong is “OK”, and “that’s how we’re going to get better”.

Ms Weir, who was born deaf and has worked with fashion brands Prada and Miu Miu as well as celebrities Amy Winehouse, Debbie Harry and Natalia Vodianova, says there needs to be education of the “hearing world”, and hopes the project “challenges misconceptions”.

She also said that the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and Channel 4’s Paralympics coverage using BSL has meant that TV has realised this past mistake, which she called a “long time coming”.

Ms Weir said: “I think the hearing world kind of realised, ‘Oh, actually, the deaf people are more than capable’ and of course they are.

“And I just think that we just haven’t really had… opportunities opened for us, and I think it was very, very difficult.

“And it’s only now that people are starting to see, ‘Oh, right, well, she’s deaf’, and now showing BSL interpreters as well and so it’s kind of (about) educating and opening eyes a bit more.”

Ms Weir, who says she had negative experiences with people making comments about her speech when she first started as a make-up artist more than two decades ago, explains that being on the podcast “reminded me of my resilience and how important it is to show others in the deaf community that success is possible, even when the road is difficult”.

In episode three, deaf mountaineer Michael Woods chats to adventurer James Aiken, and episode four sees Silk actress Maxine Peake speak to deaf actress Sophie Leigh Stone, who has been in Doctor Who and Two Doors Down.

Hear Art’s YouTube channel will release the first episode on Thursday, with the rest to be released every two weeks.

The interviews will be on Spotify, Audible and Apple Podcasts at a later stage.