“I’m not sure how political you want to go,” says Rosie Jones, who is prepared to get very political. The comedian has made her first sitcom, Pushers, about a disabled woman (played by Jones) who turns to drug dealing after her benefits are cut.
As the government plans to slash financial support for hundreds of thousands of disabled people, getting political feels inevitable. Jones has been writing and crafting her six-part Channel 4 show since 2018, when the Conservatives were eight years into power and austerity.
She worried that when she finally released Pushers and Labour was in charge, her show would no longer be making a point that was needed.
“I thought, surely when it comes out in June 2025, nearly a year into a Labour government, we would be in a utopia where disabled people are cared for, listened to. Our little show wouldn’t be relevant any more. That didn’t play out like we thought. Unfortunately, our show is more relevant than ever.”
This week, the Big Issue talks to Rosie Jones about her new sitcom, our government and how to make the world a better place.
What else is in this week’s Big Issue?
Fifty years after the Vietnam War ended, ‘boat people’ still seek safety on our shores
The war in Vietnam ended 50 years ago, and in its aftermath two million people fled the country – many by dangerous passage across the sea. Then, as now, ‘boat people’ were a political issue – an urgent humanitarian crisis that spread across the globe and polarised opinion
