Paul Darke
Paul Darke CF (born 20 January 1962) is a British academic, artist, filmmaker, podcaster and disability rights activist. Darke is an expert on disability in film and politics. Early life and education. Born in Frimley, Camberley, Darke attended special education boarding schools in Kent and Hampshire. He left the Shaftesbury Society school with little to no qualifications. In interviews, he credits an encounter with a fellow patient who was a psychologist during an unforeseen stay in hospital, to return to education. He also met his future wife, Claire, who was working there as a nurse. After a few  years out of education, he went to study at the then Wolverhampton Polytechnic at the age of 23, doing a computer access course for the disabled. He gained an MA in American Literature from Keele University. In 1999, he completed his PhD on the portrayal of disabled people in film at the University of Warwick. Academic work. Darke's work on disability and film had a major impact on academia and society. He invented the term 'normality drama', to describe a film genre which focuses on the life and experiences of a disabled protagonist. His theory is that normality drama  uses abnormal— impaired—characters to deal with a perceived threat to the dominant social hegemony of normality. He has written about movies such as The Elephant Man and Whose Life is it Anyway, as well as television shows such as Family Guy calling Seth Macfalane's show a 'bold step forward in the canon of disability works'. He regularly contributes to broadcast media. A contributor for many academic texts on disability and a podcaster of note for the podcast on disability and film Darke is currently working on three documentaries on 'Disabled Activism' with Miro Griffiths funded by Leverhulme, the