Jenny Sealey

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book, and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:41

My castaway this week is the theatre director Jenny Seely. She's been a driving force in British theatre for almost 30 years as the artistic director of Grey Eye, the Deaf and Disabled-led Theatre Company. During her tenure, Grey-Eye has generated a sea change in attitudes towards the range of people we see on our stages and screens, and towards those working behind the scenes too. Her first steps into the arts were taken in ballet shoes. She lost her hearing at the age of seven, but her dance teacher helped her realise she could still pursue the discipline she loved without hearing music. It was a revelation that she says saved her. And music has been a key feature in many of her productions. She has directed opera as well as plays and co-created the spectacular Paralympic opening ceremony for London 2012, where for one night only, Professor Stephen Hawking joined dance duo Orbital. She says, I've never been someone who's afraid of taking on new challenges. I'm still excited about what's next and how we're going to approach it. And I've come to realize that I, personally, am a part of what's next. Jenny Seeley, welcome to Desert Island Discs. Hello, and thank you for having me. We should also welcome to the programme your friend and British Sign Language interpreter Jenny Draper, who's going to be signing throughout our interview. Jenny, thank you for joining us. Hello. Jenny Seely, you at Grey Eye would usually start with an audio description of yourself. So tell me why that is and how would you describe yourself today?

Jenny Sealey2:10

Audio description is rooted in and make sure that things are accessible to blind or visually impaired people and it's also part of a creative currency as far as I'm concerned as artistic directive grey eye and always with me is I have messy hair, I have sunglasses on my hair that always match what I'm wearing. Today I'm wearing orange and blue so my sunglasses to orange. I have a hearing aid in my left ear. I always have my signature curly birdie necklace. Also I'm a thirty-four

Presenter2:38

Okay.

Jenny Sealey2:39

Uh

Presenter2:39

Yes, your sign name in sign language refers to that, I think, your ample bosom.

Jenny Sealey2:45

and let your hands bounce up and down. But also it's a sign for being present. So I like to think I am present, but I enter the room breast first. So I'm always present. Do you know what I mean?

Presenter2:59

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey2:59

Yeah.

Presenter3:00

So welcome to the programme. You've been the artistic director, Jenny, of Grey Eye since nineteen ninety seven. For listeners who haven't seen a Grey Eye production, how would you sum up the company's outlook?

Jenny Sealey3:12

It's radical, it's political, it's hot, it's revolutionary, it's just good theatre. And we place dapper, disabled and neurodiverse people on the stage in narratives that are usually around just that non-disabled people, so we absolutely challenge the perception of what we can and cannot

Presenter3:32

You're going to be sharing your discs with us today, Jenny. Tell me a bit about your relationship to music.

Jenny Sealey3:39

It's ridiculous, my relationship with music. It's s so ad hoc. You know, if I hear something uh on television or the radio and I go, Oh, ooh, that's a noise. I mean I don't genuinely like the radio'cause I can't actually really hear it. But if it's n music, that's fine of us. So I'm a sucker for the topsy because that I can hear that. I will like a piece of music even if I could only hear the first line.

Presenter4:04

And it makes me feel ooh. What's your first choice today, Jenny, and why are you taking it with you to the island? The Messiah is mass.

Jenny Sealey4:10

Slip.

Presenter4:11

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey4:11

And in secondary school all my friends were in the choir and I felt really left out. And the teacher did that horrible thing where we had to sing and they put their ear to you and they walked walk down the line and when they came to me just looked at me like, oh oh and then they carried on down the line. They were all chosen and not me.

Jenny Sealey4:34

I mean, I can't hear my voice. I mean, Jonah, my son, sometimes says, Mummy, please don't sing, please don't. But I love it. So I went up to the teacher afterwards and said, Look, can I still be in the choir as long as I don't make a sound? I can lip-sync all the words. So I was there, I was in the choir as long as I didn't say a word. But it meant I could be with my friends, and that was the most important thing. But one of my biggest blessings in my whole life, I have poor little friends. Jen here over signing away for me. She's one of them. Well, I hope that you'll see.

Speaker 44:52

Black.

Presenter5:06

Uh

Jenny Sealey5:06

Uh

Presenter5:06

Sing along to this track On Your Island, Jenny.

Jenny Sealey5:09

That is one of my thoughts. I can just sing my heart out and nobody will hear. But if there's any creatures there, they might run and hide, which might be a good thing.

Jenny Sealey5:20

Let's let it out.

Jenny Sealey5:21

This is the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Mistia.

Presenter6:08

The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, sung by the Sixteen Choir, conducted by Harry Christopher's. Jenny, you grew up in quite a large family in Nottingham, you're the eldest of four sisters. It must have been quite a busy household.

Jenny Sealey6:21

From all of our life it was about sitting around the kitchen table and talking. I was out at Bally when I was six. A ballet did actually become my whole world from the age of six till I went off to Middlesex Poly. So for a long time, being at Bally was my saving grace, I didn't have to hear hearing aid out. I could just follow the person in front.'Cause sometimes family dynamics when people are chatting, you get a little bit of it but not all of it. And then you spend a lot of your time trying to play catch up. And I've got incredible coping mechanisms so much that I'm sort of I lie to myself that I've no I know what's

Presenter6:57

What's been going on? So, to follow the conversation in a group, you had to develop those skills at a young age. What kind of thing? When you're seven.

Jenny Sealey7:04

and you go deaf and there's no support from the NHS really just at all. Make sure she grows her hair to hide her hearing aids.

Jenny Sealey7:14

But my hoom gave us this little box went all the way down to my front and my mum made lovely little bags put it in. They had to match my frog. So the thing about matching has been from day one. Ah, I see. Have to match. And I remember at school the first time going to school with this thing and this boy said, Oh, what's that? And I said, I'm channelling Doctor Who.

Presenter7:34

Quite smart. I suffer, not bad. You've recently spoken about your mum on stage in your one woman play, Self Raising. Did spending so much time thinking about your relationship bring any new insights?

Jenny Sealey7:45

Uh

Presenter7:45

F

Jenny Sealey7:45

What I have learnt is that my mum, although she is a powerhouse, extraordinary mum

Jenny Sealey7:51

And she was mum not just to us four but to all of our friends. Brought them in, she allowed them the space of freedom to discuss stuff that they would never discuss with their own family. So she gave them a safe space. But I learnt that she was fine in the fragile sense of the word because she was hiding so much about the real her. And I realised that her relationship with my granny, she just wanted to be the best daughter in the whole world. You could never do any wrong. You know, if any of us were naughty or

Speaker 48:04

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey8:25

whatever. I should don't be like that in front of your grandmother. She was terrified of Granny finding any other excuse to judge her because of the sis circumstances.

Presenter8:36

was surrounded by birth.

Presenter8:38

I want to explore that more in a bit, but for now I think we've got to make time for your next disc if you wouldn't mind. What's it going to be, Jenny Seely? Your second choice to disc?

Jenny Sealey8:46

It is Yesterday by the Beatles and because when they finally started doing a song lyrics with the LPs, Vicky and my sister Jackie, but mainly Vick would sit with me and play a song that I liked the tune of to death and she would sit there with her finger pointing to every word so I got the sense of the rhythm. I got to know the words so that I, like him people, could sing along to the sound.

Jenny Sealey9:15

And I was also in a photo group at school. Oh my god, when I think about it, it was so embarrassing. I played the triangle. Only I could mess up a triangle.

Jenny Sealey9:24

And we did do yesterday. I remember doing it at our assembly when we were in the fourth year at school. But it's about remembering me and Vic, learning the words together. And she did that for many, many more songs after that.

Speaker 39:38

Yesterday.

Speaker 39:42

All my troubles seem so far away Now it looks as though they're here to stay, Oh I believe

Speaker 39:53

Yesterday, suddenly.

Speaker 39:59

I'm not half the man I used to be

Speaker 310:04

There's a shadow hanging over

Presenter10:06

Uh

Speaker 310:06

Uh

Presenter10:06

Oh the Uh

Speaker 310:07

Uh

Presenter10:08

The Beatles and Yesterday. Jenny, tell me about your dad Bob. He was the lone man in a household of five women.

Jenny Sealey10:15

My dad was incredibly quiet, really was a man of few words and quite horrified that he had these four daughters and this loud, very glamorous woman in his life. He would sit behind the newspaper. But he was also a good fun. If push comes to the shabby, especially when we were on a holiday or on the beach, he would play. But for a lot of the time he worked really, really hard.

Presenter10:21

Um

Presenter10:42

Uh

Jenny Sealey10:42

They have

Presenter10:42

He had a photography business and I think you used to help him out, didn't you?

Jenny Sealey10:45

You had to help him out, didn't we? Well, some of our summer jobs well, certainly Vicky and I, our summer jobs were at the photography company, retouching pictures and the negative, making sure everything was there. I loved it. I found out later that Bob wasn't my real dad. He adopted me.

Presenter10:56

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey11:02

And he knew who my real dad was. What and how did you find out? When Dad died, it was the night of his funeral, and a few weeks before, we found their marriage certificate. And Vicky worked out that they got married after I was born. I just remember sitting after the funeral, and somewhere from the gut of my stomach, this question bubbled through me, up into my mouth, and it came out. I just said, Mum, was Dad my real dad?

Jenny Sealey11:34

Now that's this very simple question that came out of my mouth that absolutely transformed everything that I thought was me is not necessarily

Presenter11:44

We may. Uh So your biological father was your dad Bob's best friend, and he was someone that you knew well. They they had a business together, they were part of your life.

Jenny Sealey11:54

Devastatingly handsome man, um good far. Um Rob was a massive part of the family. Rob and his wife Peg. They would look after my sisters while mum and dad took me to hospital to be

Jenny Sealey12:07

you know, examine to find out what had happened. His children didn't know until last year.

Jenny Sealey12:14

When I told them all. He knew, his wife knew, everybody else knew. Oh, they knew. They all kept a secret. Rob Pob, Peg and Pat. Peg had the most brilliant laugh, but my respite for her now was pff wow, through the roof. So I was born in a home for unmarried mother's in Marston Green and my granny took a long time to accept me. And that breaks me because I loved my gran. So I'm furious with her now that she treated my mum like that.

Jenny Sealey12:45

Let's have some music, Jenny. What's your third choice? This is Teenage Kicks by The Undertones, and it's because it's proud of mum time. It's because Jonah, my son, who when he was 13 or 14, played this on the guitar and sang it with his best friend Sebastian Bassey on the drums. Part of Hoxton Hall's music evenings. And oh, watching your child perform live, there's nothing beats it, and he was good.

Speaker 413:25

Antimic dreams so hard to beat Every time she walks down the street

Speaker 413:32

Another girl neighbour the web

Speaker 413:35

Wish she was mad, she looks so good I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight FDA, she kicks right through the night

Presenter13:46

The Undertones and Teenage Kicks. Jenny, your hearing was fine until you had an accident at school. You were seven years old. What actually happened?

Jenny Sealey13:55

I was messing about after school with my best friend. We were waiting for his mum, who's a school cleaner, to come in. We were going to jump out behind the bookshelves. Not a very good idea actually, but anyway, so we were practicing our jumping out and he pushed me and I banged my head and bam and it really hurt. And I got home and when my mum was talking to me I couldn't hear.

Jenny Sealey14:15

Oh, oh my god. Went to the hospital, had loads of tests, went to the Royal Earnos and Throat Hospital, some of them, you know, deaf and going to school. And they said, let's grow her hair to hide her hearing aids. My man, Brilliant, short hair, fab. The deaf school, the Ewing School for the Deaf in Ottom, was relocating to Derby and I wanted to be with my friends. And the doctors did say, don't let her sign, keep her talking, which obviously I am talking, so that's carried on. It was about deaf children not looking deaf or being allowed to be deaf. So it's taken me most of my life to really embrace my deaf identity because I did not. You have to teach it to yourself. But not growing up with signing, I had to grow up with lip reading. So I had to teach myself to lip read. I would always sit next to someone who had good handwriting so if I could just copy the handwriting. My first day at big school, oh my god.

Speaker 415:00

Mm-hmm.

Jenny Sealey15:14

It was a history lesson and the history teacher was called Mr Bennett and he had on a very untidy beard and moustache and I could not see his lips and I was looking and I was looking and I just to I can feel it now, the sweat pouring down my back thinking

Presenter15:29

Uh

Presenter15:32

Uh

Jenny Sealey15:32

I don't know how to do this. So for a lot of my little life, when teachers talked about me being hard of hearing, I thought it was my fault that I wasn't trying hard enough to hear. But it was my math teacher, John Ferber, who was phenomenal. Ferber was really good at making sure that I sat on the front row, making sure I could always see him. He made maths okay. So I felt safe being in his form, but for all the other classes, oh my god, I had to go away and do a lot of studying on my own. I'm so self-taught. So to this day, it breaks my heart how thick I am about a lot of things. And people say you're not thick. I know I'm not, but I feel it inside angry for all those lessons I've never heard angry.

Presenter16:12

You've internalized them.

Jenny Sealey16:17

Jenny, it's time for d

Presenter16:19

Disk number four.

Jenny Sealey16:19

Uh

Presenter16:19

Uh

Jenny Sealey16:20

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack.

Jenny Sealey16:25

And this song has a bit of a journey. A lovely, lovely deaf man called Tony died. He was one of the first people to die of HIV-related illnesses. And he wasn't out to his family, neither was his boyfriend. But he asked our friend Iona Fletcher to sign this song for his boyfriend David to say how much I loved you. So this is at a funeral. You know, half the audience congregation knew Tony and David were in a relationship, half of them his family didn't. And Iona signed it. It was breathtaking and emotionally blah. We wept and it became the inspiration and the starting point for a play that I went on to create called Signs of a Diva. It's beautiful.

Speaker 417:13

First

Speaker 417:19

Ever I saw your face

Speaker 417:29

Thought the sun.

Speaker 417:35

Rose in your eye

Presenter17:45

Roberta Flack, and the first time ever I saw your face. Jenny Seely, after school you went on to study dance and choreography at Middlesex Polytechnic. So you were working towards a life in the arts. How well supported were your ambitions in that field at school? Did you get any careers advice? Our career advice was

Jenny Sealey18:03

So she'd be a librarian, you know, because libraries are quiet and deaf people are quiet not. We can't hear how much noise we make, whether we make a noise when we eat. I mean, my son, when I'm at home, says, Mummy, you have no idea how noisy you are when you get up in the morning to get off to work.

Jenny Sealey18:20

Well, I don't put my home aid in to the moment I leave the house. So when it was about what the hell was I going to do, mum said, Well, why don't you think about

Jenny Sealey18:30

Dancing or acting, and so I wanted to actually do acting at Middlesex Polly, but they wouldn't let me because they were worried about whether how would I hear the cues. Well, I'd already sorted out various different cueing systems, you know, if someone tucked their hair behind me, that's my cue to come in with that line. All deaf people know the whole script inside out. You know, we're not stupid. We get on with it and work it out for ourselves. One of the actors on the drama part of the course had to do a directing module, so she asked me whether I'd be in Diophone's Woman Alone.

Presenter18:46

Dog

Jenny Sealey19:03

It was the lunchtime reading and I did it and all the third years came along and the second years to know what this deaf girl could do. So it was packed. I was good. I was really good. I remember feeling so proud of myself that maybe I could go on the journey of being an actor.

Presenter19:18

Jenny, it's time for disc number five.

Jenny Sealey19:20

It's Middlesex Holidays Because the Night by Patrick Smith and it was our getting ready on a Friday night. We'd have a bottle of wine or some cans in my friend Jude, Jude Taker's bedroom. She had the biggest bedroom and the messiest bedroom and we'd all crowd in there doing our hair back combing, putting on various different outfits and this was before I knew anything about Sign Song. Jude would sort of gesture but we made up our own signs for this song and then we would go into the night filled with joy and energy and they'd get hammered.

Jenny Sealey19:56

Yeah.

Speaker 419:57

Take my hand from under cover. They can't hurt you now, can't hurt you now, can't hurt you now.

Speaker 420:16

Night belongs to love because the night belongs to love

Presenter20:27

Because the night, Patty Smith. Jenny Seely, in 1997, you got the job as artistic director of the Grey Eye Theatre Company. Now, one of your biggest creative career moments was co-directing, along with Bradley Hemmings, the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony. The evening was the most astonishing creative spectacle. There were wheelchair acrobatics, performers on six-metre sway poles, floating statues. How did it all work, putting everything together? And what were your favourite moments from that night?

Jenny Sealey20:58

I have a

Presenter20:58

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey20:58

About a million memories. There were so many things, you know, having Lizzie Amma, who's sadly now left us, but you know, a lonely disabled woman of colour with Beverly Knight singing I Am What I Am with Caroline Parker signing it. There are so many memories. Meeting Stephen Hawking and praying today, God, He didn't ask me anything about the brief history of time because I don't understand it like at all. But he was the most twinkless man, the most generous man, who said absolutely, I'm there with you and for you.

Presenter21:19

I don't understand.

Jenny Sealey21:29

We have some amazing people. I think Ian McKellen insisted on getting a pair of boots to match the rest of the cast as well. Oh, he was like, Jenny, what's an expert? And I said, oh, it's Spasticus Autisticus. It's about equality. He said, well, why am I not there? I found a stonewall, you know. Space manager, I want one of those coats and I want DMs. I'm part of this. And I went, thank you. Yes, you are. And he was there. I think we better have some music then. Don't you, Jenny Seely? What's next? It is Spasticus Autisticus. And the blockers now will only do that with John Kelly, who was the lead frontman, a wheelchair user, activist. And he was a big part of Reasons to be Cheerful and Spasticus Autisticus.

Speaker 422:10

Hello Julie out there in Northern Land.

Speaker 422:14

You may not comprehend, mind or understand.

Speaker 422:18

Her Zuckle passed your window, give me lucky looks.

Speaker 422:22

You can read my body, but you'll never read my body. Spectacles, spectacles, spectacles, autistic

Speaker 422:31

Basticus, Spasticus, Saltisticus! Spasticus! Spasticus! Spasticus! Saltisticus! On the moon! Under

Presenter22:40

John Kelly, singing Ian Dury's Spasticus Autisticus from Grey Eyes stage production of Reasons to Be Cheerful. Jenny, you've recently been touring with your one-woman play, Self-Raising. Now, it's autobiographical, and along with exploring your family background and who your birth father was, the play also touches on a very difficult time that you went through. You were 16 years old and you were sent away to live with a doctor. What happened?

Jenny Sealey23:06

It was my godmother's cousin's husband, who was a neurologist and a very powerful man.

Jenny Sealey23:11

And so I went to live with him'cause he said that he could untrap my auditory nerve. The story was that a an auditory nerve had been trapped by you banging your head. He was the only medical person who came up with the reason why I was deaf.

Presenter23:20

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey23:25

So you latch onto that when a doctor tells you something you believe it.

Presenter23:28

Uh

Jenny Sealey23:28

But

Presenter23:29

I think you know that not to be true now.

Jenny Sealey23:31

Right, because you've had scans. It's not true. I found that out when I was 49 when I had a brain scan. But I was telling this brain scan person that I have a trapped auditory nerve. He said, Are you trying to tell me my job? No, you've got brain injury, that's why you're deaf You know, any parent wants the best for their children, so I never ever blame my mum or dad.

Presenter23:32

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey23:50

But it was um, you know, one of a absolute classic example of a very powerful man taking absolute advantage of a vulnerable sixteen-year-old girl who can't hear on the telephone.

Jenny Sealey24:03

So it was fairly grim. His treatment sessions were in the afternoon when he would his wife would have a sleep downstairs, he'd take me upstairs. I mean other stuff happened. Sometimes in in a a West End theatre up in one of the banqueting rooms. I had the most beautiful blue dress on, that's all I can remember was I looked beautiful, but then a security guard.

Jenny Sealey24:28

Chucked it out. Thank you Security Guard.

Jenny Sealey24:31

So there's lots of instances like that. I still I think if I'm to

Jenny Sealey24:36

Truly honest, I haven't amp packed it all and I think I probably need to write all of this. It's that horrible thing.

Jenny Sealey24:44

When I've talked to other deaf people, that feel about not being able to hear if someone comes into your room and take your hearing out, you hear nothing. It's fantastic when you've got a baby or there's foxes doing whatever they're doing outside. I don't know what that sounds like, but people say, Oh, Jenny, the foxes are outside to a fat, terrible.

Jenny Sealey25:02

But not blow to hear and not blow to hear on the phone. I mean, I hate that.

Jenny Sealey25:09

How long were you in

Presenter25:10

Bin

Jenny Sealey25:10

Yeah.

Presenter25:11

Hi, Stanny. How did you get out?

Jenny Sealey25:11

How did you get out of it? So which is for some people they have it for so many years of their their little lives. I've no mine was a twelve month. So yeah though, that's that's it's a long time. How how did you s get out of the situation? I was ill.

Presenter25:24

Bye with that.

Jenny Sealey25:26

and came home and I sort of said something, I blurted it out that if the doctor was to examine me.

Jenny Sealey25:33

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Jenny Sealey25:35

Ah.

Jenny Sealey25:37

I don't actually have to say too much else. So they went down and got my stuff. I mean dad wanted to go to court, but he was such a powerful person.

Presenter25:46

And has your own experience of surviving something like that been a motivating force behind your work to get justice for other people, to make the world fairer and better, to make people able to use their voices and speak up?

Presenter26:00

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey26:00

Uh

Presenter26:00

Uh

Jenny Sealey26:00

Oh, I mean, I think it really is this whole thing about violation and disregarding and disrespect and all of that dirty, horrible lass.

Presenter26:11

stuff, absolutely. Jenny, let's take a break and go to some more music. This is the seventh choice today on your list. What are we going to hear next?

Jenny Sealey26:22

It's a song that probably not a lot of people know and we commissioned it for John Kelly, who was part of Reasons, and Charles Jankle and the blockheads to write it. And it came out of all of us absolute devastation. That after the euphoria of 2012, the opening ceremony, you know, being displayed was sexy. We were up there with the gods, we were equal. Suddenly everything was stripped away from us. The independent living fund was gone. They put a cap on access to work, so I'm only allowed as many hours with Jen or my other interpreters. You know, they are there on months when I can't have access because we haven't got the money. So it was about, come on, please, please.

Jenny Sealey27:06

We are a lot of charity. Give us equality. It's the second anthem that Ian Jury, had he been alive, would have worked with us on. If it can't be right, it must be wrong. It's about the stripping of our human rights.

Speaker 427:18

Heads can't be buried in red tape sand, It could all be done and dusted with a simple plan.

Speaker 427:25

Keep the pressure up, keep the vacuum going from a loving heart.

Speaker 427:32

Over forty years ago When expectations rose so high and people had more soul

Presenter27:38

So higher people have

Speaker 427:41

If it can't be right, then it must be wrong.

Speaker 427:46

What's gonna happen within Lights and Dawn?

Presenter27:50

If it can't be right, it must be wrong. John Kelly, Chars Jankle and the Blockheads are the cast of reasons to be cheerful. Jenny Seely, you've been at Grey Eye for more than 25 years and you have said that part of you runs Grey Eye on fear. Fear of disabled artists being out of sight, out of mind as far as the industry is concerned. What's your assessment of the landscape that disabled artists are making a living in and working in today?

Jenny Sealey28:17

It's a whole series of a few steps or wheels forward and a hundred back. I sort of struggle with this question because we have been making some fantastic inroads. You know, at the Globe they've got Anthony and Cleopatra with a huge death card. Like yes. But at the same time there are people who are creeping up saying, you know, I could play Richard III or

Presenter28:42

And like, hang on a minute. Sorry to interrupt. This is your expression for a non-disabled actor kind of performing as a disabled role.

Jenny Sealey28:48

Performing as a disabled role. You know, the the world out there thinks that acting should be without playing anybody. Absolutely, I get that. And people say, Jenny, you want your cake and eat it? I said, To right, I do, because we actually have not had a full cake yet. We've been given slivers. And I'm damned if we do slivers anymore. I want the full cake and I want more. So I do want for my artists and it not they're not mine but the deaf and disabled community to play the roles that are for deaf and disabled characters, but also a whole plethora of other roles until we have absolute

Presenter29:21

Parity. So, for you, what does best practice look like in terms of casting? You've said you want parity. How will you know when you've got?

Jenny Sealey29:27

Yeah.

Presenter29:27

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey29:27

Actors have never disabled people in the room when you're casting. I always cast the best person for the job. Their physicality, their disability, their empowerment, that is part of who they are. Can they act?

Presenter29:40

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey29:40

That's brilliant.

Presenter29:42

And if they're rubbish, well they don't get the job.

Presenter29:44

Jenny, we've talked a bit about casting and it's my turn now because I'm about to cast you away to your desert island. What sort of island are you hoping to encounter?

Jenny Sealey29:53

Yeah.

Presenter29:54

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey29:54

Uh

Presenter29:54

Yeah.

Jenny Sealey29:54

Uh

Presenter29:54

Oh my

Jenny Sealey29:54

Island is completely and utterly accessible.

Jenny Sealey29:58

That would be the number one priority and warm and nice sea for me to swim in. I swim all year round, but I like the warm sea.

Jenny Sealey30:07

What will you miss the most from home?

Jenny Sealey30:10

Oh, Jonah Yes, son. Oh, my baby. He's the most beautiful young man. He is my best production. And I think I would miss my Frank. He's a lovely, kind man, and he sings and signs songs to me every day. He's lovely.

Presenter30:24

All right, Jenny Seely, one more track before we send you off to your desert island. Your final choice today, what's it gonna be?

Presenter30:31

My love

Jenny Sealey30:31

This song is Days by Kirsty McCull for many reasons. Danny bought me my first iPod connected to these things called Covenants which you put behind your ear, put your hearing aid on T-Switch and the first song that came up was Days by Kirsty McCull and I shoved my head under the pillow and bawled my eyes out. He's given me 40 song lyrics, 40 of my favourite songs, put them on an iPod and finally I was like hearing people, I had an iPod, yes, at the age of 40. But it's one of those songs that without wanting to sound worthy, but I do seriously thank the universe every day for my family, my friends and my work. I have had a blessed life. For every day there was always something to say thank you for. So thank you for the days. Absolutely.

Speaker 331:19

Thank you.

Speaker 431:20

You fall the day

Speaker 431:22

Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me.

Speaker 431:29

I'm thinking of the dead

Speaker 431:34

I won't forget a single day, believe me.

Speaker 431:39

I bless the light.

Speaker 431:42

I bless the light, the lights on you, believe me.

Speaker 431:47

Hello you're gone, you're with me every single day.

Presenter31:53

Kirsty McCall and Days. So, Jenny Seely, it's time to send you away to the island. I'm going to give you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare to take along with you. You can also have another book. What would you like? Oh, this was

Jenny Sealey32:06

It's so hard. I've fallen on my stalwart which is the complete works of Armist Edmo Pen. I love those books, Tales of the City. They are my to go to when I'm feeling messed up. I just sit in bed and read them. I know them off by heart. It's a

Presenter32:24

It's my security blanket. Oh, that sounds like a very necessary companion on the island. And you can also have a luxury item to make life more enjoyable or for sensory stimulation. What have you gone for? I did toy with

Jenny Sealey32:35

The cameras and a paintbrush. But given the ba the fact that both my dads were photographers and I am deeply rubbish, it might be an opportunity for to hone my skill in as a photographer. You know, I'll make my own diet room of course. The smell of photographic development fluid. Oh my god, it's my childhood. I'll give you that.

Presenter32:53

The full kit, it's all yours.

Presenter32:55

Two. And finally, which track of the eight that you've shared with us today would you rush to save from the waves first, Jenny?

Presenter33:02

That's brutal. Worst question goes last. Always the rule.

Jenny Sealey33:06

I think it would be a hallelujah chorus because I have to try and really practice all those notes. Uh that would be a nice vocal

Presenter33:16

Oh yes, a lot of singing on this island, please. As loud as you like. Jenny Seely, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you for holding me so beautifully.

Jenny Sealey33:26

Uh

Presenter33:39

Hello, it was lovely chatting to Jenny, and I hope she's very happy on her island, singing away to her heart's content and taking lots of photos. There are more than 2,000 programmes in our archive, which you can listen to. We've cast many theatre directors away over the years: Trevor Nunn, Jude Kelly, and Adrian Noble. All those programmes are available if you search through BBC Sounds or on our own Desert Island Disc's website. The studio manager for today's programme was Never Miss Sirian. The production coordinator was Susie Roylance, and the producer was Sarah Taylor.