All Creatures Great and Small's Rachel Shenton announces new series away from Channel 5 drama - details

Rachel Shenton has launched a deaf video podcast, titled Shaping Tomorrow, where "difference" can be celebrated more.

The four-part series allows viewers to watch with subtitles on and has translation in British Sign Language.

In the first episode of the podcast, designer and entrepreneur Wayne Hemingway talks to deaf architect Christopher Laing, while the second features a conversation between make-up artists Caroline Barnes and Nicky Weir, who is deaf.

Episode three sees deaf mountaineer Michael Woods in conversation with adventurer James Aiken, while episode four shows actress Maxine Peake speaking to deaf actress Sophie Leigh Stone, who is known for her roles in Doctor Who and Two Doors Down .

© Playground Television / PBS / Channel 5 Television / Jay Brooks

Rachel, who's perhaps best known for starring in Channel 5's All Creatures Great and Small , learned to sign after the death of her father, who became deaf in the last two years of his life following chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

The actress, 36, told the PA news agency: " There is so much richness in the stories that you hear … when you hear Nicky’s story and all the other brilliant guests that we’ve got on, and actually it’s super relatable.

© Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock

"And I guess TV, film, podcasts, what we see is what is our reflection of the world, and we need to see that more. We need to celebrate difference more."

In 2020, the Hollyoaks star co-founded the social enterprise, Hear Art, with Cindy Sasha, who has a deaf family member. This led to the creation of the Shaping Tomorrow podcast, featuring a 90% deaf production team to amplify the voices of the deaf community.

© Getty

Rachel said: "The whole point of the podcast and the organisation in general is just to try to put these stories in front of more of a mainstream audience, and really just give this incredible deaf talent, Nicky being one of them, a platform that they can tell their own stories.

"And we go, 'Oh, wow, they've faced barriers, and I face barriers'. And actually, we'll celebrate the difference and get to know each other , and it's not that scary."

Rachel and her husband Chris Overton won an Oscar in 2018 for their powerful short film The Silent Child about a six-year-old deaf girl who lives a silent life before meeting a kind social worker.

© Photo: Getty Images

The TV star, who hails from Stoke-on-Trent, also encouraged people to ask questions about sign language, saying it's "OK" to get it wrong. "That's how we're going to get better," she said.

Hear Art's YouTube channel will release the first episode on Thursday, with the rest to be released every two weeks.

The interviews will be on Spotify, Audible and Apple Podcasts at a later stage.