Love is on the air

Looking to maintain its role as provider of talked-about TV shows featuring disabled people, Channel 4 announces its latest foray into the corners of our lives

Channel 4 is to once again bring disability onto mainstream television with a forthcoming series that aims to shine a light on the dating process for disabled people.

Due to air in the new year, the show, with the working title The Undateables, will follow disabled people with a range of impairments as they are matched with potential partners and then begin dating.

Producers claim that the name of the show, although currently only a working title, is designed to “be provocative and to reflect the way some individuals view people with disabilities, something which we hope to challenge.”

The series will feature a “fully inclusive personal introductions agency” that will attempt to match up both disabled and non-disabled people who have decided that the time is right to look for love.

Saskia Wilson, Development Producer at Betty, the production company behind the series, told Disability Now that the show didn’t want to limit the introduction process to only those with an impairment.

“We didn’t want to ghettoise people,” she said.

“The series is intended to offer greater insight and understanding into the issues, barriers and prejudices that are faced by people with physical, sensory, mental impairment or long term conditions.

“We’re really looking to explore society’s attitude towards disabled people and how this can affect relationships.”

She added that the producers were currently in the process of talking to a number of organisations, including leading disability networks and charities, “to ensure that the issues are handled sensitively”.

Channel 4’s Disability Director, Alison Walsh, said: “Channel 4 pioneered the normalisation of disability through natural inclusion of disabled people across reality and factual entertainment shows. Betty played a major role in this with programmes such as Truly Madly Deeply, Find Me a Family and Beauty and the Beast, so I know they’ll bring their honesty, wit, warmth and a light touch to this portrayal of people who face more than the usual difficulties in pursuing that very normal part of everyone’s life - the search for love.”

Disability Now’s sex and relationships expert, Simon Parritt, cautiously welcomed the programme. He said: “Production companies in the way they often treat disability, there is a danger that the issues can be sensationalised or taken to the extreme. However, I think there are circumstances where offering advice and guidance to those who may be having difficulties, or highlighting the issues, may be a good thing.

“Having said that, I also think that all issues that people face in relationships are the same, regardless of impairment or whatever. There is a danger that the focus shifts too much to the issue that disability is the sole factor.

“I don’t want to marginalise the fact that disabled people don’t have specific concerns or problems, and part of the problem, especially with internet dating, is that disabled people are often categorised. Disabled people are not always one thing, but there is an assumption that their impairment ticks a box, and that is the difficulty.”