Nairn actress Amy Alexander shares journey into ground-breaking new TV series on deaf clubs
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Who can recall the last time they watched a film or TV show without casually glancing at the smartphone, tapping on a laptop, scribbling or adding rows to a crochet blanket?
Even the pleasure of sitting down in front of the small screen has succumbed to the modern dictatorship of multitasking, and those days in which one could just switch off all the background distractions and immerse themselves in a story seem long gone.
However, all those devices and distractions are to be put aside and out of reach when watching the new comedy series Coffee Morning Club, a witty and engaging mockumentary commissioned by the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust and airing every Monday on Film 4.
It follows the story of a deaf club in a small English town and the effort of its members to keep it open. The production is groundbreaking in that it was created by a cast and crew composed almost entirely by deaf actors and professionals and it’s mostly in BSL and subtitled in English. A wholesome comedy addressing the issues that lifeline realities such as deaf clubs are facing across the country and broadcast on Film 4 as well on the BSLBT website, it’s a show which calls for an unprecedented level of attention for a hearing audience – but it does so in an incredibly engaging and funny way. In the show, Nairn-born actress Amy Alexander plays Sophia, a keen hearing volunteer who wants to learn BSL and help save the club.
“When this audition came up it was ideal, the character was somebody which had a similar level of BSL as mine, which was scratchy at the time” said Amy, who found a personal bond with her character.
“Sophia was just super keen to learn and to be involved in the deaf community, and support them in any way she can. She can sign bits and she gets by communicating, but a lot will go over her head.
“When I did the audition and it was lovely, I improvised a bit as well when I didn’t know how to sign something, and they said to me ‘yeah, that’s the character!’so it worked really nicely.”
Amy, who recently starred in The Phantom of the Open alongside Rhys Ifans and an advert with Idris Elba, started learning the basics of sign language and Sign Supported English (mainly SSE) and lip reading in her youth, growing up with some hearing difficulties - which then disappeared - and alongside deaf friends. A few years ago, she toured in England with a production of Hansel and Gretel starring headline deaf actors Caroline Parker and Steven Collins which mixed English and SSE.
“I always wanted to learn sign. It’s addictive you know, it just feels so natural,” said Alexander.
“During Hansel and Gretel I was just constantly asking Caroline and Steven ‘how did you sign this?’ I was so keen and they were very generous and patient.
“It’s body language its best, at its most creative.”
Working in an environment composed mostly by deaf people for the tv show was also an incredibly formative experience for the actress.
“This is one of the biggest deaf productions ever made, it was incredible. It’s definitely the most ambitious deaf production in the UK as far as I’m aware,” she said.
“When I first read the script was very different to anything I had read before, but when we got to the table read, it came to life like nothing I’d ever seen before.
“We have a beautiful writer -– Matthew Gurney – and there’s so much deaf humor in there! My personal feeling is that signing just adds a whole other layer, a whole other element to humor and to comedy because it’s so much more expressive.”
And this is not just about the body language used.
“The level of attention that deaf people have is so much higher than what you find in hearing people,” said Amy. “We’re paying attention to so many to different things. I suppose it’s a different distribution of attention. But I think we could we could take a leaf out of their book in that sense.
“When rehearsing and on set I often got distracted by watching people’s beautiful signing. It’s like a dance to me and it’s so expressive!”
This is true both for performers and for the audience, and according to the actress the feedback from hearing audiences was really positive.
“There’s something beautiful in turning down the noise, both in a literal and a sort of metaphorical sense. Just turning down the noise and being more present to the moment and for each other, it’s something really really beautiful about that world.”
“It’s really exciting that it’s more mainstream, and I hope there will be many more BSL shows in the future, I feel like there is such a market and desire for it.”
Although preparing for the show felt natural to Amy, who had a base of BSL and SSE, she had to be very careful as with time spent immersed in sign language she still had to progress at a pace that would mirror that of her character.
She said: “The director was very strict with me, he said: ‘Don’t get too good’!
By the end of the series I had to I had to kind of rein back my abilities slightly and check myself on things Sophia wouldn’t know how to express. We sort of drove past each other as the series developed.”
The show is filmed in a real deaf club in an English village and features some of the real members being in the cast and highlights a difficult situation in which support to these lifeline groups are currently.
A passionate advocate for deaf awareness and accessibility, the Nairnite said she learnt even more about daily challenges for deaf people when working on the show - and also about the possible solutions
“There are a lot of things that I learned about accessibility and a lot of things that surprise me - basic, obvious things that would really be easy to fix. There are barriers that are put in their way that simply should not be there.
“I feel really privileged to be part of something that is mainstream and to I’m excited to introduce more audiences to how BSL and English can work together.”
