Suchismita Ghosh
BBC’s coming-of-age drama ‘What It Feels Like For a Girl’ is set to commence filming in Wales, United Kingdom, in April. The series is an adaptation of journalist and campaigner Paris Lees‘ memoir of the same name. Lees adapted her book for television with Chris Sweeney on board as the director.
Set in the UK’s early 2000s club scene, the plot follows Byron’s escape to Nottingham’s underworld, where he discovers Lady Die, East Midlands’ premier podium dancer. She ends up welcoming and adopting Byron into her family, which is filled with funny and chaotic troublemakers. “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,” the logline further reveals.
Lees, one of the UK’s most prominent LGBTQIA+ figures, calls the series “a deeply personal project.” Elaborating on the same, she said, “I’m excited, hysterical, thrown and overblown with bliss, but most of all I’m just having so much fun bringing this universe to life in a visual medium.” She further added, “It’s a primal scream — from the depths of a council estate — against a world that would prefer people who don’t fit the norm didn’t exist. But we do, and we’re not going away, we’re not apologizing, and we’re not shutting up.”
Sweeney previously served as a director of ‘The Tourist,’ starring Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald, and BBC’s crime-drama ‘Liar,’ featuring Joanne Froggatt, Ioan Gruffudd, Zoë Tapper, and Danny Webb. Lees and Sweeney serve as executive producers along with Hera Pictures’ Liza Marshall and Ron O’Berst and BBC’s Nawfal Faizullah. Marshall previously produced ‘The End We Start From,’ starring Jodie Comer, Joel Fry, and Yves Rassou, ITV’s ‘Honour,’ and Starz’s upcoming series ‘Mary & George,’ starring Julianne Moore and Lydia Fleming.
Wales, the series’ principal filming location, has previously served as the backdrop for Primetime Emmy Award-winning Netflix series ‘The Crown,’ Laurie Nunn’s ‘Sex Education,’ and Prime Video’s ‘Hanna.’
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