This week, Signature interviewed William Mager, a deaf screenwriter, producer, and director. Mager’s latest project, Reunion, which is set in the deaf community is set to hit the screens Monday 7th April.
Throughout the blog, Mager discusses misconceptions about deaf creatives, emphasising their diversity and the need for more opportunities beyond acting and writing. He highlights the importance of inclusivity in film and TV, calling for more deaf professionals in production roles.
In the blog we learn more about Reunion, which Mager hopes to resonate with both deaf and hearing audiences, fostering a deeper understanding of communication’s importance.
Image: Peter Ives Photography.
Hi William, first, can you introduce yourself to our Signature engagers.
I’m a writer who was born and grew up in Sheffield, then moved to London, and now live in Bristol. I worked in TV and film as a producer and director for 20 years before leaving to pursue a career as a writer. My friends call me Billy, and my sign name is “Piano”.
What drew you to storytelling, and when did you realise you had a passion for scriptwriting?
From an early age, I think the written word was my favourite means of communication. Speech wasn’t something I acquired naturally, being deaf – and lipreading wasn’t always reliable. Writing something down felt like the clearest and easiest way to be ‘heard’. I’ve got old cardboard boxes full of books I wrote, stories I wrote, from such an early age. I loved to read books and to watch my favourite films with subtitles recorded off the TV, over and over again on worn out VHS tapes.
I began writing scripts for myself when I was at University studying English literature, then I did a Masters in Writing for Film and Television at the University of Sheffield, where Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice) was one of the lecturers and writing mentors. I remember looking at him and thinking “I want to be like him one day!”.
I graduated with an MA in Writing for Film and Television in 2001, and back then we didn’t have streaming or multiple channels and commissioners… so there wasn’t much opportunity around. I wrote my first short drama for Louis Neethling on the BBC, called GRANDAD. Through that I got my first agent and a couple of short film writing gigs, but after that there wasn’t much work going as a writer, so I fell back on my second career of making factual television while writing short films for other filmmakers and making my own short films and dramas. It wasn’t until 2019, just before COVID hit, that I decided to take the “now or never” plunge!
I started out writing information videos, a few Children’s TV shows, then I signed up for courses with ScreenSkills and applied for Arts Council funding to develop my writing. The big breakthrough came when I wrote REUNION and started sending it out to people. That script got me into Philip Shelley’s prestigious 4Screenwriting, into the BBC Writers scheme, and of course was read by the legendary Warp Films, who took it into development before the BBC greenlit it.
What are some of the biggest misconceptions about deaf creatives in the film and TV industry?
No two deaf people are the same. We’re a varied bunch. Some of us might be hard of hearing, some of us might be completely deaf and fully embedded in the world of sign language. Some of us might have gone to a deaf school, some of us might not. We’re all different, and we all see and hear the world differently, depending on our lived experience.
Not all deaf people want to tell stories about deaf people who sign. Some deaf people want to be entirely in the mainstream world, and that’s completely fine.
Some deaf people can compose music and do sound design, others prefer to delegate that to their hearing colleagues.
Deafness is a spectrum, and deaf people can exist in multiple places on that spectrum at once. There are so many stories deaf creatives can tell, in so many different ways.
Can you tell us a bit about Reunion and the storyline of the thriller?
Reunion is best described as a modern-day Western/Road Movie, set in Sheffield and South Yorkshire. Our main character, BRENNAN (Matthew Gurney), is released from prison after serving ten years for murder. He’s never explained why he did it – keeping it a secret for all that time. But once he’s out, he is on a new mission – to finish what he started before he went to prison.
Brennan soon realises that his mission isn’t as simple as he first thought. His hearing daughter, CARLY (Lara Peake) needs his help, and Brennan is faced with a choice: complete his mission or protect his daughter.
Brennan is also pursued by CHRISTINE (Anne-Marie Duff), the widow of RAY (Ace Mahbaz), the man he killed, and MIRI (Rose Ayling-Ellis), his victim’s deaf daughter, both of whom want to know the truth of why he killed Ray.
REUNION 2025 © BBC/Warp Films/Photographer: Matt Squire.
What inspired you to write Reunion? Were there any personal experiences or influences that shaped the story?
When I worked as Series Producer at BBC See Hear, there were certain stories that came up time and time again – stories that couldn’t be told on a daytime magazine programme, that couldn’t be done full justice with limited time, budget and resources.
I realised the best way to tell those stories was to dramatise them – and that was the original seed of the idea for REUNION. It’s lived in my head for a long time under various working titles: THE JOURNEY, THE ROAD TRIP, and finally, REUNION.
The idea dates all the way back to 2009 – when I hoped to write and direct it as my follow-up to MY SONG for the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust. But for one reason or another, that didn’t happen, and it languished in my drawer for over a decade. Occasionally, I’d take it out and do another draft of the treatment, changing things around a bit. Then in 2021, I decided the time was right to just write it as a script and see what people thought of it.
Really, REUNION is a mix of personal lived experience – what it’s like to be deaf in a hearing world, but also more specifically, what it’s like to be deaf and to reach a certain age where the mental scaffolding you’ve built to help you move through the hearing world begins to wobble, to become unstable, and finally, to fall away… what happens to you then, and what terrible consequences come from that?
It draws on my own experiences of education, mental health, and becoming a parent. It was hard to write at times, but I’m so proud of how these four episodes have turned out. They’ve been beautifully directed by Luke Snellin, who fully committed to REUNION, even moving up to Sheffield for five months and learning BSL to communicate with the deaf cast and crew. We have an amazing cast of deaf and hearing actors who’ve given incredible performances.
There’s so much talent in front of and behind the camera on REUNION, I really hope that comes across when people finally get to see it.
What do you hope audiences take away from Reunion after watching it?
I hope that there is something in REUNION for everyone, whether deaf, hearing, oral, signing or a Child of Deaf Adults (CODA). REUNION is mostly in BSL, with SSE, speech, and lipreading all featuring in some way, with subtitles that will make it accessible for all. I wanted to show different facets of deaf identity, but also to touch on issues that are universal to all deaf people – not just in the UK, but all around the world.
Without giving away major plot points or spoilers, the one thing I hope Reunion helps people to understand is that it doesn’t matter HOW we choose to communicate… as long as we DO communicate with the ones we love, before it’s too late.
What changes would you like to see in the industry to make it more accessible and inclusive for deaf writers and filmmakers?
I know that the TV industry is currently going through a bumpy time, with budgets and commissions being squeezed – which makes REUNION even more of a miracle than it already is!
There’s an ongoing conversation about giving more opportunities to under-represented people in film and TV, but that conversation is often around working class, LGBTQIA+ and ethnic minority programme makers – with deaf, disabled and neurodiverse representation some way behind.
I’d love to create more opportunities for deaf people to work on film and TV productions, and, crucially, to be allowed to learn and to make mistakes – I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my 25-year career and will continue to make mistakes! But I had the chance to learn from those mistakes and do better.
With support from organisations like Triple C, Deaf and Disabled People in TV and the TV Access Project as well as ScreenSkills, Screen Yorkshire, the BFI, the BBC and more, that situation is improving.
We also need more deaf crew – not just writers and filmmakers! Having deaf people in post-production, in the camera department, the make-up department, production design, costume – all of those roles need filling. Production management and production accountancy are also other specialist areas which could be filled by deaf people.
You don’t have to be a deaf version of Sean Baker or Peter Straughan to get into the world of film and TV… there are other routes in, too.
What advice would you give to aspiring deaf writers or actors who want to break into the industry?
Whether you’re an actor or a writer, I think having lived experience is really important. Being able to draw on that lived experience in an interesting, entertaining and accessible way can really make you stand out and cut through.
The stories I’ve enjoyed reading and watching the most are the ones that show me something new and feel like they’re revealing a universal truth – that I can understand, and empathise with, and go on a journey with.
As long as you feel what you’re creating is fundamentally true to yourself and the way you experience the world, then I do believe you will find an audience for it.
More than anything, you have to love what you do. Because it’s not always going to be easy. Sometimes, you’ll be asked to do yet another draft of the same script late on a Friday night, and you might not agree with the changes you’re being asked to make, but you have to do them anyway. Or you’re cold and wet in a muddy field at one o’clock in the morning. The crew’s tired and fed up, and you’re the only actor left on set. The director’s asking you to do one more take, because you haven’t quite delivered what they’re looking for.
But you have to write that new draft. You have to go for one more take. You have to keep going because you love it, and you believe in what you’re doing.
Good luck!
Here at Signature, we would like to thank William for taking time to share with us more about his journey as a writer, producer, and director. His passion for storytelling, combined with his lived experience, has helped to bring his latest project, Reunion to life- and this is something we look forward to witnessing when the show airs. William’s insights remind us how important it is to create space for deaf creatives in the film and TV industry, both in front of the camera as an actor but also behind the scenes in post-production roles. As William reminds us throughout, communication is essential both in storytelling and in life.
