Since the 1990s, Mat Fraser has been appearing in documentaries and dramas such as Happy Birthday Thalidomide, Born Freak and Cabinet Of Curiosities which have aimed to face up to the realities of disability while also poking fun at some of society's cruder perceptions. The fact that in 2020, Fraser has felt the urge to curate a series of six monologues performed by disabled actors suggests that there's still plenty to be done in order to confront prejudice on that front.

Liz Carr, Ruth Madeley, Robert Softley Gale, Jackie Hagan, Carly Houston and Fraser himself perform the 15-minute pieces (two per night) which tackle a variety of issues that are specific to disabled people but which the wider populace might relate to. So, Fraser discusses the actor's anxiety about auditions, Houston plays a children's author falling in love with her next-door neighbour while Softley Gale's Hamish goes seeking carnal pleasures in the dead of night. Carr plays someone wrestling with whether or not to snitch on a man faking his disability, Hagan is also talking fledgling romance while considering whether to have an amputation, and back in the late '60s, Sue (Madeley) is contemplating an abortion.

Some of the direction does come across as a little laboured (the abundant shots of knitting needles during the abortion monologue, for example, and when a blaze breaks out we are spoon-fed the sound of a fire engine's siren) but in the main Crip Tales are sensitive and enjoyable mini-dramas. There is some very raw material in amongst all this, but a lightness in tone is also prevalent, while there is a deliberate attempt to not always make these characters especially loveable. Anyone who has followed Mat Fraser's career will not be surprised by this, given how much he loves poking just as much fun at himself as at those around him.

Watch on iPlayer and on BBC Four, Monday 2, Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 November, 10pm.