Channel 4 disabled dating paul and phoebe dating

The nine people featured looking for love on air have a range of conditions – from autism and Down's syndrome to learning disabilities or physical impairments – but ultimately, the show's producers say, the three-part series explores the "universal desire to find love".

Hat one is labelled: ‘Disability’; the second hat is labelled ‘Occupations’.

Lazily, the Head of Documentaries takes notes out of hats one and two: ‘OCD Cleaners’, it reads.

The show is narrated almost like an Attenborough nature documentary, offering helpful advice to the viewers on how disabled people can best find a suitable mate.

And it suffers from gross paternalism too, parading the parents of disabled daters before the camera to comment on their offspring’s love-life.

The Undateables sets up disabled people with able-bodied matches and does not sugar-coat it: it can be difficult.

Richard, a man with Asperger's, is dumped halfway through his first date when he starts snacking off his companion's plate.

If they’re going to meet up they have a chaperone with them as well. Not too much, anyway.” As some choose to decline arranged marriages, there are other ways to meet other eligible bachelors – including specialist dating services.

“This is the problem,” says 30 year-old Nayera, who’s on the lookout for a husband at a dating event.

Of course that’s not how TV programmes are made, but some laziness in this vein must have inspired Channel 4’s recently relaunched documentary series, ‘The Undateables’, in which disabled people apply to a specialist dating agency in search for love.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with the premise of the show in itself, but there is something desperately wrong with the way the show represents disabled people. By implication, what makes the people on the show undateable is their disability.