ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the ways in which disabled people are represented in fictional programmes. All characters, including the disabled, were categorised according to their importance in the production. It is difficult to discuss the function and role of disabled people in dramatic fiction without some speculation about the meanings which they will have for the audience and the intentions and motives of the production team, yet we have no audience or production data which corresponds directly to this content analysis. The role is limited to a few lines and ‘Half Soldier’ appears only once. The relative frequency of the various roles does not differ very much between disabled and non-disabled characters. As might be expected the largest categories of programme by genre are soap operas, situation comedies and ‘other dramas’. Situation comedies, unlike soap operas, rarely involve social or political issues.
