“What It Feels Like for a Girl” Should Be On Your Weekend Watchlist

It is your Worth Watching briefing.

Hello,

Welcome to Worth Watching.

A lot has been said about the Doctor Who finale “The Reality War” and the unexpected departure of Ncuti Gatwa. I don’t have much to add, apart from that the episode was watched by 2.2 million the day it aired.

That’s not a great figure, especially as the finale was not available to watch on BBC iPlayer prior to it airing on BBC One that evening. We’ll have another figure this Saturday, which will include subsequent iPlayer viewing, which will help us figure out whether Billie Piper’s appearance helped drive additional viewing.

Will Disney+/BBC renew their deal? If they do and we want new episodes to air before 2027, they will have to get their skates on. Television takes a long time to put together.

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Anyway, here is this week’s newsletter. As I’m dyslexic apologies for the odd punctuation error here or there.

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GLAST-ON-TELLY

The BBC has unveiled its Glastonbury coverage for later this month. My friend has coined the coverage as ‘Glast-on-Telly,’ so please pay her royalties if you use it too.

• There will be 90 hours of live performances from live streams of the main stages on iPlayer. That’s Pyramid, Other, The Park, Woodsies and West Holts.

• Pyramid performances once again will be in Ultra High Definition (UHD).

• On Friday, 27th June, a live Glastonbury Channel on iPlayer will guide viewers through performances across all the stages, whilst a Glastonbury Highlights Channel will show you the best performances each day.

• You can already watch Glastonbury channel of classic performances on iPlayer, with performances also available on-demand.

• Glastonbury performances from the 70s, 80s and 90s will also be broadcast on BBC Two on the week leading up to the festival.

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SHOW OF THE WEEK

What It Feels Like For A Girl (BBC iPlayer, all eight episodes) – An intoxicating adaptation of the Paris Lee’s autobiography, with a career-defining turn by Ellis Howard in the title role. This eight-part coming-of-age series follows Byron as they tear themselves away from an unhappy household to a set of queer and trans friends called ‘The Fallen Divas’ in the Nottingham underground club scene. Byron thinks they are being liberated, but you can also clearly see Byron being groomed.

The series works because it never tries to do the typical BBC drama thing of telling you how you should be feeling from the events play out on the screen. It is up for you to make up your own conclusions of the plot, which is unflinching.

Personally, it also fantastic to see such complex characters. At some points you love the chaotic family ‘The Fallen Divas’ that Byron is now a part of. In others, you loathe them. The only frustration are scenes that can be a bit arty for its own sake, and that tonally it can be a uneven at times.

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