Rose Ayling-Ellis prompted some major and important changes to Loose Women, as she joined the show on Wednesday for a pioneering special episode.
It's been 18 months since Rose made Strictly Come Dancing history by being the first deaf contestant to take part in the BBC series, going onto lift the Glitterball trophy with pro partner Giovanni Pernice in the final. The pair then collected a BAFTA award for the Must See Moment in recognition of their amazing Couple's Choice routine, which saw them dance to 10 seconds of total silence, in support of the deaf community.
Since winning Strictly, Rose has left EastEnders and gone onto land an Olivier Award nomination for her role in the revival of As You Like It. And this week she's added another string to her bow, by becoming a guest panellist on Loose Women.
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Rose's role on the ITV lunchtime show was announced last week, with bosses also confirming that a number of changes would be made for the live broadcast, with those becoming immediately obvious when cameras started rolling on Wednesday afternoon.
Host Kaye Adams welcomed community to the audience, as well as introducing British Sign Language interpreters to the studio and on screen and explaining that there were screens in the studio for live captioning.
Kaye also added that subtitles were available to those people at home watching on ITV1 and that a 'fully accessible' version of the show was available to watch live on ITVX.
Throughout During the 60 minute episode, Rose, Kaye, Nadia Sawalha and Jane Moore discussed the subject of loneliness in the Deaf community and the importance of seeking help for hearing loss early on, as well as other Loose Women topics.
Ahead of the special episode, Sally Shelford, Loose Women Editor said: “This is something we have been discussing for a long time and couldn’t be more grateful to RNID, SignHealth and the Deaf Talent Collective, as well as Rose and our Loose Women panellists, for their support in helping bring this very special and important episode to life.”
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