The actor Ruth Madeley was born in Westhoughton, near Bolton, in 1987. She studied creative writing and English at Edge Hill University in Lancashire and got her acting breakthrough in the 2015 TV drama Don’t Take My Baby, playing a disabled parent fighting to keep her newborn child (Madeley was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair). She was nominated for a best actress Bafta for the role. Since then she’s starred in Russell T Davies’s Years and Years in 2019, and 2022’s Then Barbara Met Alan, as disability rights campaigner Barbara Lisicki. Madeley will play Shirley Ann Bingham in the first Doctor Who 60th anniversary special, premiering on BBC One and Disney+ on 25 November.
1. Book
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
I grew up on Britney Spears, and when her memoir came out I had to get it straight away. I was completely fascinated by the conservatorship dispute and how it was allowed to go on for so long. The fact that she was stripped of her rights, with her father as a conservator, blew my mind. I do think she was treated differently because she’s a woman: that would never have happened to a man. This is the first time she’s spoken out about some of the things she went through. It feels like a proper moment in pop culture.
2. Bar
Bar 53two, Manchester
This is a wonderful bar in central Manchester where I go whenever I want to meet other actors or people in the industry. It’s a big space under the arches near Deansgate with lots of exposed brick and plaques on the floor that you can pay to have your name engraved on. It’s run by the 53two theatre and arts charity and there’s a 150-seat theatre attached where people can put shows on at reasonable rates. It’s such a good way to nurture talent. And the bar is fully accessible for wheelchair users, which I love.
3. TV
Get Gotti (Netflix)
I finished this last night. It’s a really good three-part documentary about John Gotti, who was a mafia godfather in New York in the 80s and early 90s. It tracks his downfall and how the police eventually captured him – he had been getting away with so much. This was a really interesting insight into New York in the late 80s, when the mafia ran the city. Gotti was a terrible human being but he was treated like a movie star, appearing on the cover of Time magazine with a design by Andy Warhol.
4. Exhibition
I Am Impact at Hull Independent Photography Gallery
The artist behind this multimedia project looking at humanity’s relationship with the Earth’s nine planetary boundaries, Khandiz Joni, paints representations of things such as climate change and ocean acidification on people’s bodies and then photographs them. The aim is to call into question people’s personal agency and show how we can all be a bit better at looking after the planet. The way she captures these difficult subjects in such an artistic way is really great.
5. Fashion
Unhidden
Victoria Jenkins is an adaptive fashion designer who founded the label Unhidden. Her clothes are tailor-made for people who use wheelchairs, or have colostomy bags, or need specific materials. Clothes like these are almost impossible to find on the high street but Jenkins shows just how easy it is to make fashion accessible for everybody. I will buy pretty much everything she makes – I’ve got some great dungarees from a collaboration with Lucy & Yak that are super comfortable. I would have loved more of this when I was growing up.
6. Short film
The Puppet Asylum (Dir Otto Baxter)
Otto Baxter is a director, writer, actor and, as far as I know, the first film-maker with Down’s syndrome to direct a horror film. The Puppet Asylum, which is showing on Sky alongside a making-of documentary called Otto Baxter: Not a F***ing Horror Story, is incredible. He grew up having people saying that he was a monster, because of his disability, so he plays on that idea by telling his story through a horror narrative.
7. Campaign
Sophie Morgan’s Rights on Flights
As a wheelchair user, my biggest fear about flying is always that the airline is going to break my wheelchair and that I’ll be without it when I go on holiday. Many people with disabilities have bad experiences while flying and it can be so undignified. The TV presenter Sophie Morgan, also a wheelchair user, travels all over the world for her work and I just love that she’s launched a campaign called Rights on Flights to call for change and ensure that every passenger has a safe, dignified and comfortable journey. She’s doing incredible work.
