Ray Goodspeed reviews the groundbreaking new drama currently showing on BBC 3 [which can be watched here]
It is a very welcome coincidence that this eight-part drama has gone out just now, amid all the recent serious legal and political setbacks for the trans community. It is that extremely rare thing, a drama which not only tells the story of a teenager having to negotiate all the complexity of their emerging trans identity, but also doing it in a vibrant, unapologetic and often hilarious way, even when dealing with very dark issues.
It is based on the 2021 autobiographical novel “What it feels like for a girl” by the journalist, presenter and commentator, Paris Lees, a trans woman who even managed to get on BBC Question Time a few times, back in the days before the obsessive anti-trans hate campaign took hold.
Opening in the year 2000, it tells the story of 14-year-old teenager – called Byron in the series – who lives in Hucknall, a small, ex-mining town near Nottingham. It deals with a particular slice of working-class life and Byron’s life is pretty bleak. Not only is the town decaying and dull, but he faces a constant battle of avoiding or having to cope with regular and vicious bullying.
“He” is “girlie” you see, and attracts scorn, abuse and violence at school and around the town, and bewildered contempt and more abuse from his father, a local security guard and town “tough guy”. He is victimised as a “poof”, but it becomes clear that more is going on than him being gay.
His only support is his grandmother – his “Mammar” – who accepts him, offering love free of judgement. Music is one escape. The title of the series, and of the book, is taken from a Madonna song from 2000.
Byron is desperate to get away, to find excitement and glamour, and to make money, and these factors lead him, dangerously, to casual sex with older men for money, and then to sneaking into the queer nightclubs in Nottingham. He is taken under the wing of the “Fallen Divas,” a gang of gays and trans women – including sex workers – who offer him support, affirmation and some protection. But this also opens up a world of hedonism, drugs and real moral and physical danger.
Disturbing drama
So the scene is set for a drama which is often extremely disturbing, as Byron runs into some characters who are deeply flawed and threatening and others who are just caught up in morally dubious situations. The script, adapted by Paris Lees from her own book, avoids easy answers to the questions it poses. It is carefully nuanced and subtly portrays each main character as fully-rounded, with their own inner conflicts and complexity.
It certainly does not shrink from raw and difficult issues – there are some truly eye-popping moments – but it is written with a genuine warmth, empathy and understanding. It is ultimately heartwarming and it is also fantastically funny, lively, colourful and outrageous, with some savagely witty dialogues and put downs.
Apart from being a first-rate, engaging drama, it is also an important statement about the reality of trans lives, although Lees is keen to point out that it is only her own personal story , and cannot represent every trans experience. It still drives a coach and horses through some crass assumptions about trans people, including from some on the left.
Byron’s life, and those of the other trans characters, is a million miles from the favourite transphobic target of middle-class “Gen Z” students, and is rooted in a classically “red-wall” working-class Nottinghamshire town as well as in the world of sex work. “His” gender identity is the result of a natural realisation which develops through childhood and adolescence. He is nothing like the stereotypical academic, brain-washed by “post-modern queer theory” or whatever. For Byron, a possible job in a call-centre is an aspiration. Most trans people are part and parcel of the working class and need solidarity.
Hostility and isolation
All the stuff about social contagion and “trans trenders”, is shown to be nonsense. Byron has nobody in his life at home or at school, students or teachers, who give him any support at all, let alone encouragement. He is met with almost universal hostility and isolation.
In one key scene one of the Divas in the night club asks if someone is a “transsexual”. The clueless Byron just looks puzzled but curious and asks “what’s that?” Yet it is fully established from flashbacks to his childhood that “he” has always thought himself to be a girl from a very early age.
All of the actors are top class, especially the marvellous Ellis Howard who is in every scene in every one of the eight 45 minute episodes, which are told entirely through Byron’s eyes. It is an extraordinary performance, capturing both the sassy, irreverent humour, the gritty strength of character and also the sadness and vulnerability. And for such a full-on Scouse actor to get the Nottinghamshire working-class accent so consistently correct is a triumph in itself! Not only that but, judging from interviews, he is a raving lefty, too!
As it’s an autobiographical work, there is an inherent spoiler. We know, of course, that Byron becomes Paris, a successful journalist and writer – he becomes she – but what happens in between is an astonishing true story of triumph over adversity that this review has barely scratched the surface of.
I cannot recommend this series highly enough, both as a drama in its own right and as a source of understanding and empathy for a community currently suffering from appalling lies, abuse and hostility whipped up by politicians – including Labour ones – and almost the entire media.
