Three quarters of the way through this brand-new talentrealityTVthingywithdisabledpeople, the four judges (there are always judges in these types of things) started to argue about what they were actually supposed to be judging. You’d have thought that they would have known after they took the job on, but wait. They had just looked through eight sets of photographs from eight different disabled young women, and the question was… are they looking for someone who would be a spokesperson and an inspiration to other disabled models as well as a model; or were they looking for someone who could be a model full-stop, regardless of their disability. I have to say I hover somewhere in between with a sight leaning towards the model-first argument (making a big deal of someone’s disability is some sort of weird discrimination?), but in this segment of a very enjoyable and emotional series opener, this is surely a microcosm of the attitudes shown towards disabled people in every day life. But this was a reality TV show, there’s no room for that sort of thought-provocation. Well, hold you horses on that one.

After a very long introductory sequence – 350 girls applied, eight made it to the series… all the girls who applied considered themselves to disabled in some way – where pretty much the whole series was laid out in front of us, we met our eight wannabe models.

I’ll go over them here very quickly because it was the first episode of the series. There was Debbie from the Netherlands, who lost her right arm in a bus accident on holiday three years ago; Jenny from Seattle suffers from partial paralysis (thanks to another horrific accident); Jessica from Bristol who suffers from ME and a a disorder which makes her susceptible to injuries; Kellie from Leicester who is deaf; Kelly from Enfield who was born without a left arm; Lilli from London who is deaf; Sophie from Colchester who is a leg amputee; and Sophie from Sussex who is paralyzed from the waist down.

All these young women were gorgeous, and by entering into the competition wanted to prove something to themselves as well as strike a blow for other disabled people out there. Which is great, but I wondered whether this could be strung out for a six-part TV series. I’m all for sing TV to make statements and inspire people – surely one of main reasons for the medium – but would this make a good series? I needn’t have worried.

I’m not a fan of all the Britain’s Next Top American Model stuff, and pride myself on not getting too caught up in The Apprentice, but this worked along the same lines. Their were tasks and challenges (the girls had to go into Covent Garden to chose a prop for their first photo shoot) and there’s a tense judge-off at the end. The only difference is that because these girls are disabled in some way it means so much more to them than your average talent show rabble. During this episode the girls’ mentor, Jonathan, took them to Piccadilly Circus to show them the results of their shoot plastered all over the electronic billboards. This surprise brought tears to all their eyes and it was a lovely moment.

What was interesting about the show – and this is where the emotion and the inspiration comes into it - is seeing how some disabilities work in some social situations, and how each person deals with it. For example, in the first meet-and-great session everyone was jabbering away in the usual classic meet-and-greet session way. Apart from Lillie, who keenly felt that her deafness excluded her from the bonding session. She had to leave the room and, explained, that she was normally a confident person but being in such a situation really made her feel different for the first time in a long time. Later on, the judges even debated whether Lillie had the right kind of disability and whether her deafness would translate to the visual image as much as an arm stump or a leg stump would.

Jessica, meanwhile, broke down at the first sit-down meal. While Sophie admitted she was looking forward to letting her hair down and forgetting about her disability, the night was too much for Jessica who reacted to the situation in the exact opposite way (ie. why are so different, I will die of this condition, I hate not being in control of my life).

This is where Britain’s Missing Top Model differs from the usual talent show stuff. You get the impression that most contestants are chosen because of their ability to rile people (see recent reviews of The Apprentice for good examples there), but here the contestants are chosen for genuine reasons.

What could have been insensitively handled was actually done quite well, and this has pretty much everything - amazing, inspirational women, a bit of needle between the judges (was it just me or did the judges’ chairs look like wheelchairs?), your usual talent contest thrills and spills and, judging by next week’s trailer, some bitching between the contestants themselves.

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