A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

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that doesn‟t seem to be as important as the disability... what‟s your ambition...
what‟s your life about... what do you do... what did he study at uni... those would be
the kind of questions I‟d be asking... but then you don‟t know... you don‟t know if
that‟s like why the programme picked him... (l.3:37ff.)
Ash had few doubts about why Rhys has been picked for the programme. Rhys is a good-
looking young man, this adding to the cruelty of his affliction:
He‟s articulate... he‟s just what everybody wants a disabled person to be like... well,
from the top he looks just like... what everybody wants to think a disabled person‟s
like... (l.3:115ff.)
How much more tragic it is that someone as young and attractive as Rhys has had his life
struck down than had it been somebody from whom the audience might recoil.
If we had never heard of Friedrich‟s ataxia before this episode, we certainly will have by the
end of it: not just about the devastating impact of the condition, but about the astonishing
bravery of young Rhys as a sufferer. We have it all here: tragedy, pathos, suffering,
overcoming.
Noel: But you have decided to take a very positive attitude to this...
Rhys: I‟m not going to sit down and just let the condition get worse and worse... I‟m going
to fight and give my all to get better...
Surinder laughed.
Noel: Would I be right in thinking that your ambition for this game... the object of winning
as much money as possible... it is to be able to have more treatment...
Rhys: Yeah... this is going to take a long stretch of perseverance and just determination...
Sarah sniggered.
Noel: Perseverance... determination... pure guts... and regrettably, because of the world in
which we live... money...
Invalidation of the disabled subject position
It becomes clear that Rhys has come onto Deal Or No Deal to win as much money as
possible so he can pay for the medical treatment which will cure him.