BBC commissions new series based on Paris Lees autobiography - 'What it's like to be a girl'..

[Xoxoxoxoxoxox]

This is the BBC's latest offering aimed at educating us on the lives of trans people and their struggles. Paris moved to Brighton and transitioned into a middle class media reporter for Vogue but note how the promo blurb shows exactly what the producers think of working class people from the North- who 'shuffle around like the living dead' -how inclusive of them.

It's a new millennium - Madonna, Moloko and Basement Jaxx top the charts, and there's a whole world to explore. But teenager Byron is stuck in a small working-class town that hasn’t been the same since the coal mine shut in the 80s. Sick of mam, sick of dad, sick of being beaten up for "talkin' like a poof". Sick of everyone shuffling about like the living dead, going on about kitchens they're too skint to do up and marriages they're too scared to leave. Byron needs to get away, and doesn't care how.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2023/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-bbc

They were frothing on Reddit the other day as apparently the lead is played by a “cis man”, the horror!

Likely to be very mixed opinions on what the benefits may be from the general public getting a wider insight into the criminal offenses and beliefs of this person and how this reflects on men with trans identities. Particularly at this time when there's an attempt to argue that it's a terrible thing to permit women to say no and have boundaries from them.

Is he? I thought 'they' was non-binary

Are they frothing that one of the drag queens is played by a female actor? (I can't tell whether Sasha is meant to be a trans-identified man or a DQ, not that the difference between a TIM and a DQ is particularly clear, either.)

Will Paris’s convictions be revealed in the show? They’ve been very careful to get them scrubbed from the internet.

It's fictionalised, so 'based on' a true story. I'm going to wager the unpleasant truths will be sanitised and/or skipped over.

I imagine it will be presented in a highly sympathetic way to Paris.

I should imagine the ratings are going to be epically bad for this one.

I doubt the people from the North 'shuffling about like the living dead, going on about kitchens they're too skint to do up and marriages they're too scared to leave.' will be watching.

I did teaching practice in Hucknall in 1991 and what it felt like for a girl there was not being allowed to go into sixth form because there was no point girls getting educations apparently (the words of my teaching mentor). Never taught such a boy-heavy group in an arts & hums subject since.

That wasn't the teaching mentor's own opinion, just their reading of the local mindset btw!

I think this is going to bring rather more unhelpful sunlight

I like this review of the book….

https://the-lies-they-tell.org/2021/06/07/book-review-what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-by-paris-lees/

Screen shot of the start and end of the review.
I enjoyed reading it! (The review, not the book).

I dont know that it was a successful book? Usually when a book sells a lot of copies, the publishers are keen to say.

I dont think sales should be a factor when commissioning a drama, but pushing an ideology shouldnt be either.

Well this fiction not a documentary. But I agree their non fic coverage of trans is crap. Weirdly the trans UK redditors find the Beeb v transphobic, so this ridiculous stance had actually pleased no one! Similarly, they hate the Guardian bc a few like Sonia Sodha (the Antichrist to them practically) didn't drink the Kool aid.

Zoe Williams interview. I think she knows nothing about the Weimar Republic.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/may/30/all-of-us-felt-like-we-had-touched-gold-what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-the-bbcs-electric-coming-of-age-tale

I have a feeling that article will make me cross.

I haven’t read the book, nor will I watch the TV series, but does Paris discuss in all truthfulness why they were in prison? I would say that that is a very significant part of this story.

Okay, actually it was quite funny.

' I had this sense that people were living longer, wages were going up, flights were getting cheaper, they were cloning sheep. It felt like there was going to be more democracy, there was hope, there was a future.'

Of cloned sheep?

Is it me, or is the BBC totally obsessed with men dressed as women, be it drag or trans or whatever? Some executive has quite the fetish going on I reckon.

400 trans people employed by the BBC.

Whoa, didn’t know that. I mean I’m willing to bet many of these people are just straight middle class media studies graduates with interesting hair but even so that’s a fair few people. Still, my job involves commissioning (books). I don’t make them all about my type of lifestyle or interests or “identity”. Well actually, none of them tbh

Don’t fit the norm? 🤣🤣

What an insult to the working classes, too!

It must be a good show after all it is based off of an "acclaimed" memoir by an "award-winning" writer.

I think this will also win some Baftas next year for some reason. The Baftas seem to always select BBC dramas no one ever watched particularly if they are about a worthy cause.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70zd31n2k0o

Repetitive BBC article on the news website trailing this. Really scraping at the bottom of the barrel to present Supreme Court as oppressive. Can’t discuss the crime committed in real life at all because, plot point.

That disgusting article that Paris Lees wrote about loving being catcalled in public or whatever crap it was is such a far cry from this presentation of Lees here as being some kind of eminent author.