Says disability campaigner

Fears that Ricky Gervais’s new comedy Derek mocks the mentally challenged are unfounded – says the disability campaigner who successfully lobbied him over his use of the word ‘mong’.

Nicky Clark says she’s now watched the Channel 4 pilot several times, and ‘each time I’ve laughed and cried’.

‘I haven’t seen cruelty,’ she added, ‘I haven’t seen Gervais “playing disabled” but I have seen reality in the subject matter.

‘There are already some mutterings, from people who haven’t seen the pilot, along the lines of “here we go again I suppose he’s laughing at vulnerable people”. I didn’t find that to be the case.

‘Instead of it being a mocking disintegration of a learning-disabled man, paraded for the amusement of comfortable, unaffected people, it’s the story that really needs to be told at the moment.

‘It’s the story of a socially isolated, gentle vulnerable man surrounded by other people who society wants to forget, but told with humour, heart and real warmth. It’s a comedy in my opinion, which shows the reality of a life of otherness.’

Clark says she has had a dialogue with Gervais since he was accused of being a bully for his repeated use of the word ‘mong’ on Twitter and says he is ‘politely receptive to challenge’ – which is why he sent her a copy of the pilot to watch.

Gervais has also insisted that Derek does not have a learning disability. ‘Derek is a fictional character and is defined by his creator. Me,’ he said. ‘If I say I don't mean him to be disabled then that’s it. A fictional doctor can't come along and prove me wrong.

‘If he had any specific and defined disability I would either get an actor with that disability to play the role or I would make sure I was an expert in that disability and the best person for the job. I think it's a good rule of thumb (no offence if you don't have thumbs) to use actors with the disability of the character they are portraying.’

Read Clark’s blog in which she interviews Gervais about Derek here.

Published: 9 Apr 2012