Meet the new disabled star of EastEnders

MAT Now we’ve got new disabled Eastender in the studio, it’s David Proud.
DAVID Hello.
LIZ Welcome.
MAT Look at you, David, how are you?
DAVID I’m fine thank you, very well.
MAT You’re looking well.
DAVID How are you guys are you okay?
MAT Well Liz has a little bit of a cold.
LIZ But it’s all right I’ll keep away I’m a bit worried.
DAVID It’s not swine flu?
MAT No it’s not.
LIZ No it’s fine don’t worry you can touch me and everything.
MAT Well that was a cul-de-sac wasn’t it? What kind of a day have you had?
DAVID It’s been okay so far yeah. Kind of got the train in so...
MAT Training?
DAVID The train in.
MAT Oh the train oh all right.
DAVID Yeah all on time and...
MAT Did you have to book ahead 24 hours?
DAVID I did book my assistance this time I’m really quite naughty I normally just kind of pitch up and...
MAT How dare you assume that things...
DAVID I know.
MAT ... should be actually normally accessible.
DAVID I was actually organised this week.
MAT Right well look you are the first disabled actor to ever have a regular role on the BBC prime time soap Eastenders. You’ll be playing Josie Lawrence’s son Adam and ladies and gentlemen we’ll be seeing him enter Albert Square very, very soon.
LIZ If you’re thinking the name is familiar you may have seen him on CBBC wheelchair basketball drama, Desperados and also on ITV2’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl. David Proud you are our guest today, hello and welcome.
DAVID Thank you very much.
LIZ Well look let’s get straight into Eastenders, no beating around the bush here, I want to know, tell us a bit about Adam the character that you play.
DAVID He’s a very strong character. I keep referring to him as spiky I think it’s a good word for him. He kind of goes in there to ruffle a few feathers so he’s a good one to watch.
MAT Right. I think we’re going to listen to a clip. This is where Adam arrives on the square for the first time and he’s welcomed by his mum, Manda, played by Josie Lawrence and her boyfriend Minty. Let’s take a listen.
[Playing clip:
Manda: Adam, oh I was getting worried. Charlie said he’d dropped you at the market ages ago.
Adam: I thought I’d take in a bit of local colour. Hiya mum.
Manda: Hiya darling ooh mhww.
Adam: You must be Minty?
Minty: Yep, yeah er
Adam: Yeah I do shake hands.
Minty: I knew that, I knew that good job I wasn’t sure why they’d ((0:24:28?)) you.
Manda: Adam, the thing is um
Minty: Look yeah I’m sorry, er, your mum left access arriving arrangements to me I’m a bit of a plank so, er, hence no stair climber. But the good news is I’m a bit of a plank and I can be handy so I can give you
Adam: No I think I can manage]

LIZ An awkward disability moment with Minty at the end there.
DAVID Yeah well I mean it’s the first time that he’s like meeting Manda’s son so it would be awkward in any kind of situation. But yeah he... bless him.
LIZ Does he build you a ramp?
DAVID Well it’s kind of you’ve got to watch it because it’s... there’s lot of kind of bits where you see Adam kind of going round the square in different bits so it’s interesting to see how he kind of fits in with the whole set really.
LIZ Negotiates it all.
DAVID Yeah.
LIZ So in your ordinary life do you get a lot of those awkward disability moments of people not knowing what to do?
DAVID I think I still do from time to time but they’re getting a little bit more rare now. But I think that it’s something that every disabled person has really that you do have to cope with the reaction of people to you even if you’re kind of okay with your disability it’s something that you just have to put up with really.
LIZ And how do you - do you laugh it off or do you, you know?
DAVID It depends whether they’re kind of nice or not really. So yeah but most people are nice to me.
MAT But you're quite a nice bloke David I mean...
DAVID Yeah.
MAT ... you’re an easygoing I wouldn’t have you as an extreme sort of...
DAVID No.
MAT ... chippy overly spiky person yourself so normally...
DAVID No.
MAT ... you’d probably let people off don’t you?
DAVID Well I think if you kind of have a bit of a smile and show people that you kind of don’t need their help, you know, it bodes well for next time they meet another disabled person. You know I think if you were to be quite, you know, not very nice in that situation it’s only going to make them twice as worse next time.
MAT So, I’m sorry go on Liz.
LIZ You say that Adam is spiky then?
DAVID Yeah.
LIZ Are you similar to Adam in any ways do you think?
DAVID I’d like to say that we’re as intelligent as each other but I think Adam wins because he’s a kind of Oxford student. But I don’t know I think he’s kind of... he is a cool guy and he’s quite stylish I have to say the people at Eastenders have done well with their styling and I’m naturally very unstylish.
MAT I wouldn’t say that.
DAVID Really?
MAT I mean the chap I’m looking at now has a very stylish haircut, a beautiful cardigan.
DAVID Oh thank you.
MAT And clearly the recipient of some dramatic Eastender’s wages because I don’t think you’d have been able to afford that cardigan ((0:26:57?))
DAVID No it is quite a nice cardy.
LIZ You weren’t looking like that when we interviewed you for Desperados.
DAVID No.
MAT No remember the days and the rags.
LIZ Yeah you were in a track suit that day and plastic.
MAT A stick with a bag on the end. Now I recently did Holby City and I only mention that to say that it was in the same...
LIZ Cry, cry for us, Mat.
MAT Shall we have cry off? Me and David have a cry off now.
LIZ Can you cry?
DAVID I can cry.
MAT On demand.
DAVID But it’s a visual thing because it’s very kind of I don’t know, I’m very silent when I cry some people are very vocal but I’m...
MAT Three, two, one.
LIZ It’s beautiful I can see. Actually there’s practical real tears here from David. You're just making a lot of...
MAT What about me?
LIZ You're just making a lot of face moves Mat?
DAVID I’m just making a lot more water.
LIZ Yeah, no that’s it.
MAT Well the point I wanted to make.
LIZ That’s good.
MAT The only reason I mentioned it was because we shared the same canteen as the Eastenders lot.
DAVID Yes, yes.
MAT So I’m vaguely familiar with like where you work. What was it like when you met everyone on Eastenders? How were they with you like the actors and the makeup people and all the real people you really work with?
DAVID Yeah it’s really exciting because you kind of go round there and you've seen this place for years and years and years but you don't... so it’s a little bit new but at the same time quite familiar.
MAT Listeners should know that I’m familiar with it this is the biggest soap drama on British TV and it’s been going since what 1984?
DAVID Yeah 25 years I think they’re coming up to.
MAT From before you were born.
DAVID Yeah.
MAT Wow! Anyway go on.
DAVID Yeah so it’s quite momentous and you go round there and you see different people but all of the cast are lovely and they come up and introduce themselves and they know what it’s like to be the new kind of person, so they’re all looking after you and asking how your scenes have gone and, you know, chatting away. So you kind of very quickly settle in and there’s so many people there to kind of support you and make sure you’re okay and where you need to be and everything.
MAT Who’s your mate? There’s always a couple of people that you immediately sort of magnetise to.
DAVID Do you know what I would say female mate Belinda who plays Libby.
MAT Oh yeah.
DAVID So funny she’s a really, really funny girl. And I have to say Himesh who plays Tamwar he’s really funny as well.
LIZ They’re your mates?
DAVID Yeah, yeah. You do get to chat to lots of people and they’re all really lovely.
LIZ So I wonder how you got there, you grew up in Cambridgeshire?
DAVID Yeah.
MAT Special school or mainstream?
DAVID No mainstream. They kind of wanted to steer me towards special, well not so much a special school but one that was more suitable.
MAT Oh yeah what do you mean suitable?
DAVID It already had kind of all the ramps and all the different bits but I wanted to go where my sister went and all my friends went. And I went round there and had a look and there was only certain things that I needed at the time and I was then followed in subsequent years by quite a lot of other people in wheelchairs and so much so that we had enough to do a little wheelchair race on sports day.
MAT Did you win?
DAVID The thing is it was a bit biased because I was playing wheelchair basketball at the time so I was a little bit kind of athletic anyway yeah I ((0:29:50?))
LIZ You did. You’re being nice.
MAT Well like mockery to the others really.
LIZ Did you organise the race by any chance?
DAVID I had a hand in suggesting it. I did yeah.
MAT The other really interesting thing about your school that I’ve seen in your notes is that you wanted to play the part of Tiny Tim in the school play.
DAVID I did.
MAT We have to know about this.
DAVID Yeah I went up to my drama teacher and said I’m born to play that part, you know, I really want it. And she eventually let me kind of do it, and I’d had a leg operation so I had like a plaster cast on my leg and I said to the hospital it must be an old style plaster cast because it’s got to be in keeping with like The Christmas Carol which they did. So even kind of back then I had like attention to detail with parts.
LIZ You really wanted that part.
DAVID I really wanted that part yeah.
MAT Have you always wanted to be an actor?
DAVID I sang on stage and I made everyone cry. But I don’t know whether it’s kind of crying because it was good and cute or crying because it was bad.
MAT Can we hear a bit of the song now?
DAVID Oh no, no my singing voice is retired at least for now anyway.
LIZ So you leave school right, and this really made me giggle because I thought you’re going to be an actor, you know, this is the thing you’re smooth pathway to Eastenders, but I read you spent some time being a DSS assessor, a benefit assessor - is this right?
DAVID I went through a moment of doubt thinking that I couldn’t have a career as an actor mainly because you look in TV and you see are there any parts out there. And the answer at that time was no there’s very little. So for me I took a year out and went and got a normal job. And the year like ran into about four and a half years of processing benefits which was... it’s an incredible job and you kind of meet so many slices of people it really opens your eyes up to the world. And you're kind of you’re sat there and you’re kind of thinking about what you want to do and what you want to get out of life, so it was a grounding job.
LIZ So it didn’t make you more cynical or harder hearted in a way...
DAVID No.
LIZ ... it made you the opposite?
DAVID No if anything you learn to kind of see everybody as individual, you know, and everyone’s got their own back history and it was just... it was good experience for me especially being that young to kind of go into a job with responsibility and gave me good office experience as well.
LIZ So you’re going to be... your first appearance on the show September the 10th there’s been calls to have a disabled character in Eastenders for years really.
MAT How long Liz?
LIZ I think it’s...
MAT I’ll tell you.
LIZ Is it...
MAT Y--E--A--R--S
LIZ Is that 24 years is that the bitter wail of regret that it’s not you Mat? Is that what that was? So we have been calling for this, you get the job - oh my God - do you feel the weight of responsibility on your shoulders to get it right...
MAT You’re every cripple.
LIZ ... for all of us?
DAVID I think that if I didn’t feel some kind of responsibility I probably wouldn’t be doing my job right. So you do kind of think that, you know, you have to kind of get it right but I mean Diederick Santer, who’s the Executive Producer, has been amazing and, you know, they’ve got this kind of vision of Adam and they’ve been brilliant with me as well kind of settling me in. So you do kind of feel that responsibility. But at the end of the day when I kind of go on to set I have to kind of try and forget all of that and just bring him to life really.
LIZ So you sort of have to trust the role and you have to trust what they’ve written for you?
DAVID Yeah and you know and they really have done their research well and, you know, they’ve talked to me a lot so I kind of expect quite a lot of positive things from it.
MAT However, as we well know the normals, those that are not blessed with impairment, sometimes get it wrong through no fault of their own. Now if that happens and you’re at a script meeting and “We’d like this to happen” and you’re thinking deep down “This just doesn’t feel right” what are you going to do David, are you going pipe up or keep the peace?
DAVID I don’t think they would put me in that position. I think if I kind of said that wasn’t quite right because at the end of the day it’s me who’s bringing him to life, you know, I’ve got to feel comfortable with the material that we’re using.
MAT Yeah quite right.
DAVID And, to be honest, with the starts of how it’s kind of gone I can’t envisage anything like that because they’ve been great chatting to me all the time. So I’m just kind of looking forward to some good storylines and for you guys to see how Adam kind of comes to life and what he ends up getting up to.
LIZ And we’ll obviously invite you back and take you to task if you...
DAVID Yes, yeah oh yeah.
LIZ ... have a problem if that’s all right.
MAT One of the things I like about you David is I think that we could do that and you would be up for it.
LIZ But tell me you have got more than a three month contract haven’t you?
DAVID Well you see you can’t comment I can’t say anything...
LIZ Okay.
DAVID ... but you come back... well he comes back to visit his mum for the summer and you’ve just got to kind of watch and see what happens with him. So it’s mainly so you two guys watch it and keep up to date with Adam that I won’t say anything. I’m keeping schtum.
LIZ You’ll be back for the Christmas holidays then.
MAT You might take me back to the programme which, to be honest, I stopped watching a while back but no, no, no through... just because of life’s circumstances and stuff but I’m actually really keen to see how your character fair... and how you as an actor because I’ve watched you from the beginning of your career you know.
DAVID I know I think as an actor...
MAT I think you’re doing really well.
DAVID ... you do you never, you know, you never stop learning and you kind of grow.
LIZ Fantastic. And you keep coming here and joining us...
DAVID Yes.
LIZ ... that’s what I like. Well look you can see David as Adam on Eastenders, 7:30pm on Thursday the 10th of September BBC1 - looking forward to it. Thank you.
DAVID Thank you guys.
LIZ Thanks for coming on. Good luck.
MAT Yeah nice one David. Good luck.