Page 27 - Community Living Magazine 34-3

arts: reviews

The royals’ shameful secrecy

The Crown reveals feelings of stigma about ‘mental deficiency’ Katherine Bowes-Lyon. In a supporting
within the royal family, says Tracey Harding, and a radio series role, Tina Byrne, who had lived at Royal
Earlswood, played one of their friends.
follows a young couple living an ordinary life Other residents were played by actors
from the Impact Theatre Company, based
in Ealing. The company offers performing
The Crown: the Hereditary Principle and creative arts activities to adults with
Netflix learning disabilities, and several of their
performers were in this episode – a
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles wonderful opportunity for all of those
BBC Radio 4/BBC Sounds who were involved.
The episode reaffirmed the importance
s long winter days stretched on, we of continued visibility of people with
turned to TV, radio and film to learning disabilities on screen, which will,
Aprovide relief and distraction from hopefully, continue when film and TV
the monotony of lockdown life. production returns.
Thankfully, two programmes featuring
actors with learning disabilities reminded Funny, warming, everyday life
us of the potential and talent that is Another highlight, this time on radio, was
increasingly being recognised and is the return of The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles
waiting in the wings. on Radio 4.
The first is an episode of Netflix series King George VI and Queen Elizabeth with Poland’s Written by Esther Wilson, this
The Crown, and the other is the 10th prime minister on a visit in 1941 – the year her 15-minute drama started life on Woman’s
series of award-winning Radio 4 drama nieces were locked away from public view Hour in 2009, and was so successful it was
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles. given its own billing.
First, The Crown: the fourth season of Defectives in 1941. Recorded in Burke’s The series has followed the tribulations
the fictionalised drama that reimagines Peerage as having died, the sisters spent of a couple with learning disabilities who
some of the key events from the Queen’s all their lives ignored and rejected in cope with falling in love, paying the bills
reign. The series has garnered accolades the institution. and all the other normalities of everyday
for performances and writing. Although they had been born into the life that we take for granted.
Episode 7, The Hereditary Principle, wealth of royalty, Nerissa and Katherine, This current series, the 10th, follows the
includes actors with learning disabilities like many people with learning disabilities couple as their daughter Frankie starts
telling a little-known story about the royal during this era, were abandoned. school. The first episode reflects the
family and their history. The writer and creator of the series, current climate as Darleen experiences
The programme sees Princess Margaret Peter Morgan, portrays the reason for nervousness over leaving the home and
attending a therapy session where she the secrecy and covering up of their using a face mask without her glasses
admits to depression, and the therapist existence as the Queen Mother’s desire steaming up.
discusses the Windsor family’s mental to protect the monarchy from her own The performances of the two lead
health history. personal shame. characters, played by Donna Lavin and
In the drama, the Queen Mother argues Edmund Davies, who themselves have
Recorded in Burke’s Peerage that once she became queen, her family physical and learning disabilities, are the
main reasons why this drama has been
had a bloodline to the monarchy, and the
as having died, the sisters integrity of future heirs to the throne so successful.
spent all their lives ignored would be jeopardised if people knew The programme is funny, heart-warming
and rejected in the institution about the mental disorder in her family. and life affirming – just what we need in
The shame and stigma attached to this
these times. n
meant that her nieces were never
discussed or acknowledged within the
She informs Margaret that the princess royal family.
has two cousins on her mother’s side who Key to the success of this episode were
were institutionalised, and this sets in the actors with learning disabilities, who
National Digital Archives of Poland not realised existed. highlighted the sense of isolation and
gave poignant and moving performances
motion Margaret’s determination to find
that enhanced the storyline and
out more about the cousins who she had
Katherine and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon were
abandonment that these women and
Margaret’s first cousins on her mother’s
their fellow residents endured.
side and the two sisters, both with
The sisters were played beautifully by
Pauline Hendrikson and Trudy Emery, who
learning disabilities, were sent in secret to
Actor Terry Smith of the Impact Theatre Company
the Royal Earlswood Institution for Mental
in the green room for the filming of the Crown
www.cl-initiatives.co.uk took the lead roles as Nerissa and Community Living Vol 34 No 3 | Spring 2021 27