EXCLUSIVE: Adrian Smith is on a mission, to convince traditional TV’s gatekeepers to take a chance on presenters with Tourette’s syndrome.
Smith says he is the only TV presenter in the UK who has been diagnosed with Tourette’s, while there are only a handful in the U.S., with the crux of his issue lying with commissioners and execs’ lack of education over what the syndrome is and how it manifests.
Speaking exclusively to Deadline, he said “the room just goes quiet” when he introduces the idea of helming a TV series to those who hold the greenlight keys.
“Commissioners and creators need to unlock doors and realize we are capable of doing things,” he said.
Smith, who presents a branded content show about spirits, said that when broadcasters do make shows about Tourette’s, they often hire presenters who don’t have the syndrome.
He cited Channel 4’s Scarlett Investigates… from two years ago, a doc about the number of teenagers living with Tourette’s helmed by the former Gogglebox star, who developed facial tics for two years as a teenager as as result of suffering from Bell’s Palsy.
Smith said the secret lies in education. For example, he regularly promotes the statistic that only 10% of Tourette’s sufferers present with Coprolalia, the act of involuntary swearing. Around 1% of the UK’s circa-70 million population is estimated to have Tourette’s in some form.
“Radio producers have told me I can’t be on the radio because, ‘it’s live and we can’t have swearing.’ Misinformation is rife and that misinformation comes from how Tourette’s has been portrayed historically, as something that is comedic,” added Smith, pointing to harmful representation such as Baxley in The Predator. “You only have to look at the documentaries, which focus exclusively on Coprolalia. We are seen as circus freaks who can’t even find life partners.”
On the contrary, Smith said his Tourette’s helps with concentration when the cameras are rolling. “What [gatekeepers] don’t realize is that we have these tics and twitches but when focusing on something we are super passionate about, all the excess energy that creates tics can become channelled, and we become a force of nature,” he said.
Smith has circumvented what he deems the commissioner prejudice issue by seeking branded content funding. His three-seasons-long TV series The Three Drinkers, which he presents with friends and drink experts Colin Hampden-White and Helena Nicklin, was funded with money from tourism boards and other brands, and it streams on Prime Video. He also contributes to podcasts and radio shows, is a DE & I ambassador for this year’s MIPCOM Cannes and is an ambassador for the Tourette Association of America.
The push for greater diversity in the TV industry, which Smith will be harnessing at MIPCOM, has not extended to Tourette’s in the same vein as it has to people with physical disabilities or who are neurodivergent, he added, citing a number of stars who have been candid about ADHD diagnoses of late such as Greta Gerwig.
“Doors are continuing to open for certain disability groups if you can show you are incredibly creative,” he added. “Being in a wheelchair doesn’t inhibit you from being able to act in the same way it did before. You can be cast into roles even if there are access issues. Sadly the doors are not opening [in the same way] for people with Tourette’s.”
Life turned on its head
Smith was diagnosed when he was just nine. Prior to his diagnosis, he was a child actor on an ITV series, appearing alongside the likes of Matthew Lewis, who went on to play Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies.
“The first tic I remember was me saying ‘woop’ loudly,” he recalled. “As soon as I went into the studio they noticed I was making these noises and I was dropped by my acting school, the TV show and the theater.”
At this point Smith said his life was turned on its head and he was “bullied relentlessly,” with his only “saving grace” being an online community he discovered outside of school.
He said he was “laughed at” when he tried to take the conventional route of becoming a presenter and was told to “drop his expectations,” but he instead landed a placement at a U.S. university and “met people who became my adopted family,” giving him the confidence to make a go of it with the likes of The Three Drinkers.
Now, Smith sees glimmers of hope for the future, starting with the reaction to Lewis Capaldi’s tics during his Glastonbury set last year, which yielded a beautiful moment as the crowd helped the ‘Someone You Loved’ singer get through his set.
“That was the biggest thing that happened in the past year,” added Smith. “His fearlessness in that moment was incredible. When Lewis went on stage like that and sang that was the first time in my life I had ever felt people people understood what Tourette’s was and it gave me hope in that moment.”
He wants to transfer this hope into the TV presenting world, with a desire that he is the “person looked at as the first major TV presenter with Tourette’s.”
“I’d like to be on screen with a disability where I’m professional, credible and not just the victim because I have worked my butt off to get where I am now,” he added. “And I have so much more to give.”
The post Meet The Presenter Telling TV’s Gatekeepers To Get With The Program On Tourette’s appeared first on Deadline.
