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| THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. TX: 03.11.06 - EastEnders and Down's Syndrome PRESENTER: John Waite EASTENDERS THEME TUNE WAITE Now millions of people tune into the television soaps each week and if you've been watching EastEnders recently you'll know that the big storyline is the fact that Billy and Honey Mitchell's new baby Petal has Down's Syndrome. So how do the script writers research such a sensitive subject? Well Carolyn Atkinson, our disability reporter, has been talking to Steve Palmer and his five-year-old son Stan, who has Down's Syndrome, they were one of the families who met with the Albert Square team to pass on their experiences, so that even soap operas can become reality TV. CLIP FROM EASTENDERS PALMER Do you want a drink? Yeah. Say I want a drink. Good boy. Good signing, Stan mate. Daddy, yeah, good boy. Who's daddy. Yeah I am aren't I. When we found out that EastEnders might be doing it as a story, we were delighted. It was just from our point of view it was really great to actually meet with the actors as well because they were the ones that were actually having to portray this on TV. They knew a lot about it already but I think it was handy to me and I mean the idea of sitting down and showing someone a photograph of a child being born and perhaps their heart condition as well, that just was sort of was good so that we could impart something to them. CLIP FROM EASTENDERS PALMER It is a terrible, terrible first sort of 24 hours and maybe even longer, you really do think the most terrible things. ATKINSON When it happened to you what were you immediate thoughts? PALMER My initial thoughts were completely of shock although when he was born I thought he had Down's Syndrome and I said to Jane I think he's got Down's Syndrome and she said no he hasn't because we had some tests, they weren't invasive tests but we'd had some tests and so we convinced ourselves. And then just after they told us, just after this doctor told us, I had to take him down and they had to get blood out of him and he was screaming and he was like a few hours old and it was awful and I had this experience whereby they were trying to get blood out of my son and yet I wasn't treating him like my son and yet he needed my help, he needed me to hold him and make sure they got the blood without him being in pain. That was a wonderful chance for a bonding moment and I just didn't take it because I just wanted to reject him. You just want to not have that problem. CLIP FROM EASTENDERS PALMER I remember thinking if he woke up in the morning and he'd died overnight that would solve all our problems. It's ignorance because you think well he's going to die because he's got Down's Syndrome, it's completely mad. I went to pick up my other son and I was in Homebase and Jane was still in hospital with Stan and I suddenly was at the checkout and I realised I had two sons and suddenly yeah this kid needs me, I'm going to go and sort him out - I'm his dad. And from that moment on for me I had two sons. Good boy. Good signing mate, I didn't know you could do that. We use a form of sign language called Makaton and it's not like sign language, like British sign language, it just is some things in the sentence, so you know I want a drink actually he's just signed but - and that's a very basic sentence. So you say what do you want on TV, you might have two signs in it. He's got a massive vocabulary actually of signs and that really helps in terms of helping him communicate before he talks. Right, do you want to do your PowerPoint? This is just a PowerPoint presentation that we've got, that I made up for him, and it's got some pictures of his friends and family and it's got people saying hello Stanley it's mummy or granny or whatever. And he can press - oh he's just turned the computer off, great. He's got a great big sort of roller ball thing and he can press the buttons to make sure it goes on to the next picture. ATKINSON So it starts with Stan's voice. PALMER Stan's talking there, lovely picture. Are you going to press the button for the next one? COMPUTER Hello Stanley, it's mummy. Hi Stan, I'm Eve. ATKINSON What were the key things you wanted them to take on board, to actually listen to as opposed to just nod sagely? PALMER Well I suppose I was aware this child's going to be hopefully in it for 20 years and that's just wonderful news but initially it's the birth and dealing with you know going out as a family. I often think that Stan doesn't have Down's Syndrome until he leaves the house because then that's when like the staring starts and people try and say the right thing and all that sort of stuff. But in terms of the birth obviously, we wanted to make sure that they got across that some mistakes can be made. Some aspects of when Stan was born were managed okay, other aspects were just terrible. The doctor walked in and said I think he's got Down's Syndrome. And you know I actually wasn't in - I hadn't been in the room, I'd been away to get something and I just came back and you know I could have easily missed that moment and Jane would have been told exactly how Honey was told in EastEnders. Of course the relatives start turning up and the phone calls start. ATKINSON And I mean the lines in EastEnders with Peggy talking about well don't worry the baby can go into care or foster or whatever, you know, this assumption that some people make that the last thing you want to do is keep the baby? PALMER Yeah I think it's important that that happened because there are people around like that. CLIP FROM EASTENDERS PALMER Look, look Stan, what's this. Yeah come on, do you want the balloon, oh okay, come on then. Yeah right. Now look, look, look. [Balloon blowing] Up or down? Down. Good boy, you said down then. People call it speech and language therapy but like in a way he didn't have it in the first place so it's speech and language lesson or something. And what we want to do is teach him how to not just rely on us. I mean I just constantly get people saying oh they're lovely and cuddly aren't they, they're so loving aren't they - and you say yeah well they are, yeah they are, they absolutely are - he's the most loving cuddly child you can think of. But I also want him to achieve things at school. I also want him to become a drummer in a rock band, I mean that's what I want for him but what about what he wants, maybe he wants to do something else. I want him to do the things that he wants to do, if he wants to stack shelves in Tesco and really enjoy it, let him do that but I want him to achieve things. ATKINSON Twenty years down the line hoping perhaps that the character is still in EastEnders do you think all this business you're talking about, you know being stared at in the street, doing double takes, all the rest of it, do you think society will move on from that, do you think it will become more of the norm, I'm using inverted commas, that it's not something that's unusual? PALMER I hope so but I hope for more as well, I hope that in 20 years time the girl is going to be driving a car, she's going to have a job, she's going to have lots of friends. Yes be supported, yes have special needs but these days so much more is achievable because society is changing in its attitudes to Down's Syndrome and so we want all that in there. CLIP FROM EASTENDERS WAITE Carolyn Atkinson talking to Steve Palmer and his five-year-old son Stan. Well Phil Redmond has been with us throughout the programme, on the line from Liverpool. In the past Phil of course various of your creations, notably Brookside, have had some fairly challenging storylines, it is so easy, isn't it, to get it wrong. REDMOND It is yeah, but it's also as equally easy to get it right. I mean we had the Farnhams having a Down's child for many, many years. But I think the big issue is that what dramas like EastEnders and Corrie and Brookside can do is actually help people who've got whatever the problem is realise that it's not just them, you know, there are other people out there, there's lots of people who understand what they do and they can seek help. And the other thing listening to that particular item was how much new technology was embedded into their lifestyle and that's what also helps people in knowledge transfer. WAITE Well you'll be cheering that on won't you. REDMOND I will indeed. WAITE Okay, well Phil thank you very much for joining us today and details of Phil's convention tomorrow in Liverpool will be on our website. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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