First look pictures from factual drama Then Barbara Met Alan, starring Ruth Madeley and Arthur Hughes

Written by multiple Bafta-winner Jack Thorne and award-winning actor-turned-writer Genevieve Barr, Then Barbara Met Alan tells the story through the eyes of Barbara Lisicki (Ruth Madeley) and Alan Holdsworth (newcomer Arthur Hughes), two disabled cabaret performers who met at a gig in 1989 and would go on to become the driving force behind DAN - the Direct Action Network, whose fearless and coordinated protests pushed the campaign for disabled rights into the spotlight.

The first-look images show Bafta-nominated Ruth Madeley as Barbara Lisicki and Arthur Hughes as Alan Holdsworth, as well as some of the wider cast during a demonstration scene.

The film is directed by Bruce Goodison and Amit Sharma. Bruce is a Bafta-winning director whose credits include BBC Three’s Murdered By My Father and BBC One’s hit drama Doctor Foster. Amit was one of the directors for BBC Four’s Prix Italia winning and Bafta-nominated Crip Tales, and has previously been associate director of Graeae Theatre Company.

The factual drama was previously announced with the working title Independence Day? How Disabled Rights Were Won.

Then Barbara Met Alan (1x60) was commissioned by Patrick Holland, Director, Factual, Arts & Classical Music and Clare Sillery, Head of Commissioning, Documentaries, History and religion.

The BBC Commissioning Editors are Abigail Priddle and Emma Loach. It is being made by Dragonfly Film and TV Ltd (a Banijay UK company) and One Shoe Films. The Executive Producers are Richard Bond, Tom Pullen and Jack Thorne. The writers are Jack Thorne and Genevieve Barr and the directors are Bruce Goodison and Amit Sharma.

On Disability:

• Earlier this year we announced Cerrie Burnell as the BBC’s first Disability Ambassador. Cerrie is joined by Creative Diversity Disability Lead, Kay Ashton MBE and Project Manager of Elevate, Nichola Garde. This specialist disability team, reporting to Miranda Wayland, Head of Creative Diversity, are developing, delivering and championing the BBC’s disability agenda as part of the broadcaster’s wider diversity strategy.

• The appointments build on the BBC commitment to disability inclusion and work is already well under way to improve authentic portrayal and disability representation both on and off screen.

• We’ve launched BBC Elevate: a concerted drive to support disabled production talent into roles which grow their careers and accelerate change across the industry. The initiative comes out of BBC Content and includes freelancers and suppliers, it aims to create a greater pool of off-screen disabled talent regularly working across broadcasting.

• Over the last year we commissioned a series of disability-led programmes, featuring some of the UK’s leading disabled storytellers, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act. This included Mat Fraser’s Crip Tales and Being Frank - The Frank Gardner Story, which pushed the boundaries on authentic portrayal and inclusive representation. This continued with a further slate of documentaries including Katie Price’s Harvey and Me, Cerrie Burnell’s Silenced: The Hidden Story of Disabled Britain and Paddy And Christine McGuinness: Our Family And Autism, coming to BBC One on 1 December.

• The BBC is one of the Valuable 500’s small group of Iconic Leaders working together to lead the way in tackling disability inclusion in business.

• We’re rolling-out a ‘BBC Passport’ for use by disabled staff. The BBC is the only broadcaster to have a passport of this kind in operation, which helps ensure the needs and reasonable adjustments of disabled colleagues are met as they progress from department to department within the BBC.

• We’ve expanded the successful gender representation 50:50 methodology to include monitoring disability and ethnicity.