‘The reality of being a Deaf person in prison will shock you’

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The star of the new BBC revenge thriller Reunion, Matthew Gurney, has spoken to Metro about the ‘double sentence’ Deaf prisoners endure.

The dual-language show, directed by Luke Snellin (One Day), features both English and British Sign Language (BSL).

The actor plays recently released murder convict Daniel Brennan, a deaf man attempting to enact his vengeance and reconnect with his estranged daughter Carly (How to Have Sex star Lara Peake) a decade after his incarceration.

As the family of his victim, wife Christine (Anne Marie-Duff) and daughter Miri (Rose Ayling-Ellis) desperately attempt to find answers behind the death of their loved one, the viewer enters flashbacks into Daniel’s turbulent experience in prison.

Shunned from his community on the outside, Daniel comes up against systemic barriers to accessibility, as well as facing little to no communication when confined to his room which exacerbates the troubles between him and his cellmates.

‘We call it a double sentence, so obviously you’re in prison, but you have no communication,’ Matthew told us in an interview.

Matthew Gurney has previously worked with deaf prisoners to bring their stories to life (Picture: BBC/Warp Films/P)

‘I’ve done theater work, and the show was called Double Sentence, so I did some research on Deaf prisoners, and I realised it really hit me then. It’s happening all over the place.

‘My research [from] then was brought into my role as Brennan. [At the theatre] we got Deaf prisoners in that we could ask questions to, “what was your experience?”. And there were lots of things that were shocking me.’

In 2016, the British Deaf Association published a report about the experience of deaf and hard-of-hearing prisoners in the UK which described deaf prisoners’ isolation as a ‘prison within a prison’.

Barriers included lack of accessibility during prison induction, being unable to effectively communicate with people on a day-to-day basis, and ineffective methods to contact the outside world.

In the show, we see Daniel offered vital documents he is unable to read and undergo important meetings without an interpreter.

The show tracks Daniel’s many layers of isolation after he is convicted of the murder of a close friend (Credits: BBC/Warp Films/Nick Eagle)

Although the report offered several recommendations such as ‘encouraging better information sharing between deaf
prisoners and prison staff’ or being aware of privilege around ‘literacy skills’, there is still much progress to be had across the spectrum.

As Matthew explained: ‘It’s an old system but it’s still like that now and it’s the same in boarding schools.

‘We’ve got so many similar stories about deaf people in prisons, in schools. It happens all the time. It’s not a new storyline for us. For the audience, it’s new, but within our community, it’s a well-known trope that it’s a double sentence.’

And speaking to the BBC, Sheffield-born deaf writer William explained how, for Daniel, this isolation extends beyond the prison after he is released and becomes a key driving factor for the story.

‘It becomes a double prison sentence for Brennan, he is in a physical prison, but he finishes his time and is in a different kind of prison,’ William explained.

Several audience members may not know about the aspect of the prison experience (Picture: BBC/Warp Films/Nick Eagle)

He continued: ‘That’s part of the story, how he deals with that isolation and overcomes the feeling of losing everything. In the deaf community, everybody knows everybody, and Brennan is a victim of rumours.

‘Nobody knows why he did what he did, and everyone’s created theories and ideas about what happened that night.’

Elsewhere in the interview with Metro, Matthew praised the show for creating a character ‘very different from the stereotypes’.

‘He’s just a man who happens to be deaf, and he’s on his own journey and that really hooked me. If he was a victim, I wouldn’t have auditioned for him as a part for me but it was a really exciting character to play,’ he added.

The four-part series is from the producers behind Netflix’s hit show Adolescence which has dominated the streaming charts, and national conversation, over the past month.

Reunion will air at 9pm on BBC One tonight and be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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