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"The Specials" is an multi-award winning reality television series about five friends with intellectual disabilities who share a house in Brighton, UK.

Originally made as a web-series the show has since made the transition to television.

Cast
The five housemates: Sam, Lucy, Lewis, Hilly and Megan have been friends since childhood. They started living together when Hilly told her parents she wanted to live with her friends. Hilly's parents, Carol and Dafydd Williams, set up Small Opportunities, the company which runs the house where the housemates in The Specials live.

Lewis has Williams syndrome while Sam, Hilly, Lucy and Megan have Down syndrome.

Web series
The show was initially launched as a web-series on The Specials website. Consisting of 10✕10–15 minute episodes, the first episode was released on 2 September 2009. Subsequent episodes were released roughly every fortnight, with the 10th and last released on 7 December 2009.

Plot
The first season began as Lewis' girlfriend, Megan, joined the house. During the course of the season one, the housemates attend to their daily activities, like life skills classes, preparing meals, and working in a charity shop, as well as going on holiday, learning to surf, and competing in a Special Olympics equestrian event. This season also focused on the housemates falling in and out of love, going clubbing, and even learning about the Ladyboys of Bangkok.

Reception
The observational documentary series follows their lives and has won rave reviews for the insight it gives into inclusive, independent living for adults with intellectual disabilities.

The series is ground-breaking in its empowering structure, by letting young adults with intellectual disabilities tell the audience about their lives through the narration in the series. Reviewers have compared it to MTV's The Real World, saying "inner-house romance and friendship rule, minus the evil."

Awards

 * Winner, Webby Award in the Reality Category, 14th Annual Webby Awards 2010.
 * Winner, People's Choice Award in the Reality Category, 14th Annual Webby Awards 2010.
 * Winner, Festival Cinema Tous Ecrans 'Prix Titra Films S.A.,' November 2010.
 * Winner, Best Web Series, National Youth Disability Film Awards UK, December 2010.
 * Finalist, Original Series category, Vimeo Awards 2010.

Transition to television
The transition to television.

Use in education
It was used in a Disability Studies course that focuses on media and disability at City University of New York in summer 2011.

International broadcasts
International broadcasts.