It is a beauty contest complete with a swimsuit round. But all the contestants in the latest reality format to sweep ratings-hungry broadcasters have a disability.

Contestants must display a “handicap visible to the eye” in Miss Ability, a Dutch show that became the surprise hit of 2006 in the Netherlands.

Twelve women, including amputees and wheelchair-bound contestants, parade in nightgowns and bathing suits.

They star in short films demonstrating how they have overcome severe disabilities before submitting to a viewer vote.

The Netherlands was the breeding ground for Big Brother. Now the rights to remake Miss Ability have been snapped up in Britain, France, Germany and the US.

Absolutely Independent, the Dutch producers, insist that the show does not patronise disabled people. But the prospectus does not suggest sensitivity. It reads: “Ever whistled at a woman in a wheelchair? Checked out the boobs of a blind babe? If the answer’s ‘no’, this barrier-breaking show will put an end to that.”

DLT Entertainment, the company behind My Family, the hit BBC One comedy, is making the show in Britain. The producers are promising that contestants will be empowered. Heather Mills, the estranged wife of Sir Paul McCartney, is being approached to be the presenter.

British broadcasters will bid for the show in the new year. But there are fears that the trend for extreme reality shows could produce tasteless television. A recent Disney format invited patients needing brain or spinal tumour treatment and other life-threatening diseases to become guinea-pigs for pioneering surgery.

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