{"id":500291,"date":"2026-02-26T07:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500291\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T07:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:07:11","slug":"we-might-regret-this-review-brilliant-disabled-led-comedy-continues-to-skewer-its-targets-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500291\/","title":{"rendered":"We Might Regret This review \u2013 brilliant disabled-led comedy continues to skewer its targets | Television"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a rule, I don\u2019t chat about the Equality Act when I\u2019m watching TV. But as I sat down to the new series of We Might Regret This \u2013 the BBC\u2019s groundbreaking comedy about a disabled artist and her best friend turned personal assistant \u2013 I couldn\u2019t help but think about the cultural and political climate that it\u2019s landing in (one in which politicians are genuinely debating<\/a> whether we should scrap the law<\/a> that stops employers from being able to sack someone because they\u2019re disabled).<\/p>\n

The writers are clearly not naive to this. Filmed last summer as the government sought to cut disability benefits, the first episode opens with Freya (played by co-creator and writer Kyla Harris) in a supermarket filming a public information advert for the Department for Work and Pensions. A prop baby flung over one shoulder and staring up from her wheelchair at nappies on the top shelf, Freya \u2013 still half-heartedly doing the disability-themed modelling she started last series \u2013 is struggling to get the right expression. Can she use some of her \u201clived experience\u201d, the director asks. \u201cYou saying: \u2018Hey, if something is wrong with your body, the government will throw you a fiver.\u2019\u201d Freya offers him another look. \u201cOK, that\u2019s too helpless. That\u2019s Unicef.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is what We Might Regret This does so well. It is not a show about disability per se \u2013 instead, think messy friendships and sex with men dressed as Smurfs \u2013 but it has no issue with skewering an ableist trope if it needs to (and we live in an era where it really needs to).<\/p>\n

The last time we saw Freya, she had discovered that her loving but unreliable friend Jo (Elena Saurel) had been sleeping with her partner\u2019s son, Levi (Edward Bluemel). The first series ended with a cliffhanger: Jo had run away \u2013 mid PA shift, no less \u2013 and Freya was left sitting in her hallway, mouth ajar in shock (but not in a Unicef kind of way).<\/p>\n

When we return, Freya and Abe (Darren Boyd) are engaged. Jo is still MIA, while Levi \u2013 dealing with depression and newly moved in with his dad and Freya \u2013 is concerned his former girlfriend has been kidnapped, trafficked, or \u201cfallen down a big, big well\u201d. Ty (Aasiya Shah) \u2013 Freya\u2019s previously fired but now reinstated, delightfully chaotic PA \u2013 is less interested in a search party. \u201cWe\u2019re actually thriving without Jo,\u201d she says, squeezed between Freya and Abe. \u201cDynamics here are rock solid. We don\u2019t need any setbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ty is in many ways the sort of character who could only come from a disabled-led comedy. The quips are quick and Shah\u2019s delivery is laugh-out-loud funny. But the real humour comes from how our expectations are being subverted: we\u2019ve been socialised to think the wheelchair-user is going to be the incompetent, needy oddball but (wait for it) it\u2019s actually her personal assistant.<\/p>\n

See also, Freya\u2019s agents, the Olivias (Emma Sidi and Hanako Footman): two public relations experts with an unrivalled keenness to make a profit from modern brands\u2019 superficial interest in diversity. Visibly excited by Freya\u2019s engagement \u2013 and the social media engagement it could bring \u2013 they start pitching for a wedding dress designer to co-lab with everyone\u2019s \u201cfavourite tetraplegic\/upcoming artist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA legit disabled bride as your canvas is gold dust,\u201d one of the Olivias drones.<\/p>\n

For a relatively new show, WMRT has always had an enviable little black book of guest stars \u2013 and that continues in the second series. Lolly Adefope returns as Susan, the ex-army PA trainer who shouldn\u2019t be allowed to train anyone. Sally Phillips is back as Abe\u2019s ex-wife, still ever present and now writing a book (\u201con monogamy and gibbons\u201d). British comedy veteran Sophie Thompson joins as Bean, a deeply eccentric wedding dress designer happy to give Freya her options (\u201cThis is half a dress, for someone who\u2019s half certain about getting married\u201d).<\/p>\n

Still, Freya can\u2019t help but think of her wayward best friend. Sat around the table listening to the Olivias, her fiance, her PA, her future son-in-law, and her fiance\u2019s ex-wife as they share their thoughts on weddings and content creation, she decides it\u2019s time to look for Jo. I won\u2019t spoil the rest of the series but, safe to say, the two of them are reunited with some help\/hindrance from self-appointed mediator Ty.<\/p>\n

Maybe we would all be better off if we switched off the news for a while. If we soaked up an alternative world in which those with power valued disabled lives, where the media and political spheres worked to subvert rather than give in to our worst expectations of disability, and of each other. For 27 minutes, at least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a rule, I don\u2019t chat about the Equality Act when I\u2019m watching TV. But as I sat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-500291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}