At Fillingham Weston Associates, we’re proud to represent exceptional talent pushing the industry forward and this week we’re celebrating our client Miranda Walker, part of the writing team behind the award-winning children’s series MIXMUPS, which has just launched a groundbreaking new innovation: Ultra Access.
Now streaming on Milkshake! (Channel 5), MIXMUPS is a vibrant stop-motion preschool show that celebrates difference, joy, and imaginative play – with disabled characters at its heart. Created by Rebecca Atkinson, produced by Mackinnon & Saunders and led by Head Writer Debbie Macdonald, it’s a show built with access and inclusion in mind from the very beginning.
With the launch of Ultra Access – developed in partnership with interactive tech company Stornaway – the show now leads the way in personalised accessible viewing. Viewers can customise how they watch from a menu of 14 different features, including options like reduced background sound, Makaton signing, simplified visuals, large subtitles, and even pre-episode sensory prompts.
Recently featured in The Guardian, this innovation has the potential to revolutionise TV viewing for disabled children. For Miranda, who brings both her writing expertise and lived experience as a disabled creative, it’s a project close to her heart.
Miranda is an experienced writer for TV, stage, radio, and musicals, known for creating inclusive, joyful, and emotionally intelligent work for children and adults alike. While she’s a regular contributor to children’s television, she also brings her unique voice to adult audiences. In 2021, she created FACE IT – two standalone comedy-drama monologues commissioned by the BBC and released on iPlayer. The monologues reveal how two women feel about their faces in the modern swipe-right world, and the unexpected impact of wearing Covid-19 face masks.
These bold, funny, and deeply human stories continue to resonate, most recently with FACE IT: Abbey screening at the Women Over Fifty Film Festival in 2024, followed by a panel discussion on menopause featuring Miranda.
Beyond her writing, Miranda is a leading advocate for inclusion in the industry. She is currently Co-Chair of the Writers’ Guild Equality and Diversity Committee and recently spoke at the 2024 Children’s Media Conference on disability representation in writers’ rooms. In 2021, she was named the most-nominated favourite writer of disability by Writers’ Guild members during UK Disability History Month.
At FWA, we’re proud to work with creatives with disabilities like Miranda – voices that are not only important but vital to creating a more inclusive and representative industry. Representation matters, on stage, screen and behind the scenes. Miranda’s work is a powerful reminder of the stories that emerge when creatives with lived experience are given space to shine.
Congratulations to Miranda and the entire MIXMUPS team on this exciting step forward in accessible broadcasting. We can’t wait to see what’s next.