In Babble, at first sight, Fred and Germ wouldn’t seem to have a lot in common. Fred is comfortably middle-aged, a writer, an academic and a seasoned traveller. Germ is young, an unemployed would-be chef and a punk.

At first it would seem their only common ground is their deafness but under the surface the cracks are always waiting to emerge.

Babble (along with Everything is Crazy by Kevin Lavin) was the first drama in Irish Sign Language (ISL) ever to be broadcast on Irish television. Babble was written and directed by John J Doherty (Harry Clarke – Darkness In Light and Frederick Douglass and the White Negro)