Silent Witness star Liz Carr has said she “refused to say certain lines” that she thought were “problematic” during her eight years on the show.
Carr, who is one of the most high-profile disabled actors in Britain, has played forensic examiner Clarissa Mullery in Silent Witness since 2012, and left the BBC show this week at the end of its 23rd season.
She said that while she is proud of how Silent Witness improved the representation of disabled people on screen, filming the show has not always been easy.
“I was getting quite tired because over the eight years I’ve policed the show quite a lot,” Carr told the BBC Ouch podcast. “I worked to make sure it was better and refused to say certain lines that I thought were problematic, and pushed to have storylines and caused mayhem when I wasn’t getting storylines. I insisted that Clarissa got a partner and that they were created properly.”
Carr also discussed the “risk aversion” and “fear” that many of the show’s writers felt when it came to scripting a disabled character.
“[Writer] Tim [Prager] persisted,” she said. “Every season pretty much he would write an episode and he was the only one who ever wrote for Clarissa to go out on location… Tim has a disabled son so he just knew how to do it.”
Despite the difficulties, Carr added: "I was asked recently if I was proud of what we achieved in terms of representation in Silent Witness – oh, my goodness, of course I am."
Carr has arthrogryposis multiplex congenital, a rare genetic condition, and has been in a wheelchair since she was seven years old.
Viewers of Carr’s final Silent Witness episode were blindsided following the “harrowing” death of one of its other main characters.
