What It Feels Like For a Girl is fearless TV - exactly what the BBC was made for

Daily Mirror

a day ago

Released at the start of Pride month, the BBC adaptation of the bestselling book What It Feels Like For a Girl should have been a joyous moment for the LGBTQ+ community. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, given the current political climate across the world, Paris Lees' memoir coming to life on screen sparked a wave of transphobic commentary.
From prominent newspaper columnists cruelly and incorrectly using male pronouns when discussing Lees' in their nasty 'reviews' to the sadly predictable tweets, this new BBC series has received far more hostile attention than it would have done had it not been centred around a transwoman's lived experience.
Amid the controversy that occurs whenever trans people dare tell their stories, it's essential to not focus on 'backlash' and instead judge queer art on its substance rather than superfluous outrage. So, is What It Feels Like For A Girl any good?
In short, yes - anyone refusing to watch this bold new series because of their views on gender identity is cutting their nose off to spite their face. What It Feels Like For a Girl is original, bold, witty, and sometimes uncomfortable viewing, with complicated characters that have you constantly changing your opinion of them.
Set in the early 00s, allowing for a wonderful dose of Y2K nostalgia, What It Feels Like For a Girl follows 13-year-old Byron as they try to escape a life of homophobic bullying and forge a new path for themselves.
Bryon's fed up with their dad - the weightlifting, womanising Gaz - and their mum, who fled to Turkey like Shirley Valentine. They've had enough of the people in Hucknall, until they meet the captivating Lady Die and The Fallen Divas and begin a rollercoaster ride of hedonism in the East Midlands.
The main focus of the series is obviously Bryon's journey with their gender identity and the LGBTQ+ community, but What It Feels Like For a Girl is also packed with universal experiences that working-class people from the straight community will relate to and understand.
I first read What It Feels Like For A Girl shortly after losing my nan, with whom I lived as a teenager. As a fellow 'nan kid', reading Bryon's love for their grandmother – or 'Mommar' - felt almost therapeutic and cathartic as I wrestled with my grief.
A close relationship with a grandparent, of course, isn't something that's exclusively working-class, but in What It Feels Like For a Girl, Lees manages to perfectly summarise just what it feels like to grow up with perhaps a little less money than others but more love from a grandparent than the rich will ever know of.
A TV series inspired by a book from a well-known public figure that has sold millions of copies across the world shouldn't be seen as such a radical act - it wasn't when Richard Osman landed a Netflix deal to adapt his twee 'cosy' crime waffle - but here we are.
I'm loath to praise the BBC for commissioning this series - because it shouldn't be such a rarity to see trans authors get TV adaptations - but it is refreshing to see the public service broadcaster actually follow its Royal Charter and provide quality, diverse, and informative content to licence fee payers.
What It Feels Like For A Girl will likely be a stand alone series, given the fact it's based on Lees' memoir, but hopefully 'sequels' will come in the form of new, fresh stories from other LGBTQ+ writers finding their way onto iPlayer.