‘I am first wheelchair user to direct Eastenders’

A director from Derbyshire has become the first wheelchair user to direct EastEnders since its inception in 1985.

Owen Tooth, 44, from Duffield, directed the popular BBC One soap episode which aired on 14 October to more than 3.5 million viewers.

Mr Tooth described working on the flagship show as “dreamy”.

He added: “It’s just so much to take on, it’s a big show and it’s a big accomplishment to take it on, so I felt really proud of it.”

Mr Tooth has been using a wheelchair for the last four years after a rock climbing accident triggered an autoimmune disease which affects his joints.

He said: “I’m so much more able in my wheelchair, but for a long time I tried to hide the problems I was having.”

He said after becoming a wheelchair user his career “just ended, it was literally like overnight”.

“I was earning a 20th of what I’d been earning before, I couldn’t get work, I couldn’t get meetings,” he added.

“It was an overnight change, and going to meetings and pitching and networking, it was like I was invisible.”

Mr Tooth, who has won awards at multiple film festivals, said his experience working on EastEnders was “overwhelmingly positive”.

“They’ve got crew and they’ve got cast who are wheelchair users there, so for me I’m really used to being on a film set and them having an awful lot of questions and an awful lot of uncomfortable people around me.

“It was just so relaxed there, it was kind of dreamy going into a place where the ground was already laid for me.”

He said becoming a wheelchair user has made him appreciate how much work the film industry needs to do when it comes to people with disabilities.

“It’s not as easy to get into the industry if you have a disability,” he added.

“I think I still thought it was a meritocracy, I still thought talent would rise and that’s not actually true when there’s barriers in the way that really stop you from progressing, you cant cultivate your talent if no one is going to let you.”