What It Feels Like for a Girl

2025 Ended BBC iPlayer ★ 5.5/10

Drama

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. Life explodes in a rush when Byron escapes to Nottingham's kinetic underworld and discovers the East Midlands' premier podium-dancer-cum-hellraiser, the mesmerising Lady Die. Byron is adopted into Lady Die's hilarious and chaotic family of trouble-makers – "The Fallen Divas". Between them, they beg, steal and skank their way on a rollercoaster ride of hedonism at the heart of the UK's early 2000s club scene. The party can't last though, and when Byron is seduced by bad-boy Liam, a shocking encounter occurs that will change life forever. Joyful, frank and packed with memorable characters, What It Feels Like for a Girl is a journey of love and danger, self-discovery and self-destruction. Because to find yourself sometimes you need to lose yourself...