There has been a new wave of British television shows about the English aristocracy reaching American shores of late. And while “Downton Abbey” is garnering most of the buzz for its nighttime soap-opera story lines and ornate set decoration, another BBC drama is looking to ride its coattails to success, with one of its actresses being a person with a disability.
Sarah Gordy made her first appearance on “Upstairs, Downstairs” in the last episode of the first season, which originally aired in 2010. She plays Lady Pamela, sister of Lord Hallam, the patriarch of the family around whom the series is centered. Hallam thought Pamela had died as a child but discovers she was actually hidden away in an asylum because she has Down’s syndrome.
It was a common practice among the upper class in the England of the 1930s that the series is set, and thus a symbol of the family moving into the modern world when Hallam chooses to bring Pamela home. That choice sets the stage for her appearances in the second season of “Upstairs, Downstairs,” which aired its first episode on BBC this past Sunday evening and will make its way to PBS in America later this year.
Reporter James Wallin wrote a feature about Gordy on Tuesday for the U.K. daily, The Argus. In it, she talks about her approach to her craft, her work with the The Oyster Project, a charity for disabled people run by disabled people in England, and her newfound role as an inspiration for other people with disabilities. She tells Wallin:
I get a lot of messages from people in America who are fascinated by this character and her experiences. It seems like I’ve become a bit of a pin-up girl for Down’s syndrome.
The message Gordy would probably want to relate back to her new fans is about the work she puts into her career. For “Upstairs, Downstairs,” she tells the UK Daily Mail’s Elizabeth Sanderson about the hours she put into researching life in the 1930s for people with disabilities. Gordy herself is a product of inclusion in the mainstream school systems of both England and the United States, so she relied on the tools of her trade — hard work and imagination — to create a backstory for Lady Pamela.
Just in her mid-30s, Gordy already has accumulated a wide breadth of acting experiences that include radio plays and theater in addition to television and movies. The home page of her website proudly features a quote from playwright Lisa Evans that demonstrates the qualities that have brought Gordy’s career on the brink of stardom:
She brings to rehearsals an enthusiasm and concentration which energises all around her… and her wit and charm, plus a determination to get it right however complex the language is, make her a performer who can make the audience believe she is whoever she says she is.
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Image by mOgky, used under its Creative Commons license.