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.
Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton with their best live action short film Oscar for The Silent Child (Ian West/PA) “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. Make-up artist Nicky Weir said she hopes the project challenges misconceptions (Hear Art/PA) “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, .